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ROSE OF THE WIND. i 2 mo, $1.25, net. 

Postage extra. 
THE SHOES THAT DANCED, AND OTHER 

POEMS, izmo, $1.10, net. Postage 8 cents. 
THE HEART OF THE ROAD, AND OTHER 

POEMS. i2mo, $1.00, net. Postage 8 

cents. 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
Boston and New York 



ROSE OF THE WIND 

AND OTHER POEMS 



ROSE OF THE WIND 

And other Poems 



By ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 



^^% 



COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 

Published November zqio 



©CI.A278097 



TO MY COUSIN 
H. EUGENE BOLLES 

THE BEST LOVER OF POETRY 

THAT I HAVE EVER KNOWN 

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK 



* Who would not sing for Lycidas ? he knew 
Himself to sing and build the lofty rhyme." 



CONTENTS 

ROSE OF THE WIND I 

NIMROD 54 

THE MONK IN THE KITCHEN 1 36 

DREAM 141 

THE WARRIOR MAID 1 44 

ERE THE GOLDEN BOWL IS BROKEN . . . I47 

CONNECTICUT ROAD SONG I5O 

SO I MAY FEEL THE HANDS OF GOD . .153 

TO AN ENEMY 1 55 

SELENE l6l 

THE WEDDING FEAST l8l 

DOMINUS VINEAE, SPIRITUS AGRICOLA . . 2IO, 



ROSE OF THE WIND 

CHARACTERS 

Sebastian — the cobbler, 
Nora — betrothed to Sebastian. 
Rose of the Wind — an Elemental. 
A Minstrel — from Fairyland. 

Scene : Cottage of Sebastian the cobbler. In the 
rear is a blazing fire of logs and near it a cob- 
bler's bench at which Sebastian is seated at 
work over a woman's shoe. At one side of the 
fire a door opens out of doors. At the right an- 
other door opens into an inner chamber. A large 
crucifix is the only adornment of the cobbler's 
room, which is lighted by fire and candle-light. 
On the floor by the cobbler's bench is a row of 
shoes of all kinds from big boots to little slippers. 

ROSE OF THE WIND (outside) 

Sebastian ! Oh ! Sebastian ! 

SEBASTIAN 

Who is there? — 
No answer ! 't was the wind — belike. Hey now, 
{Lifts up a shoe admiringly.) 



2 ROSE OF THE WIND 

But here 's a pretty shape of good stout leather 
To fit the neatest feet in Christendom. 
And since they travel only on kind errands, 
God bless my leather. 

ROSE OF THE WIND (outside) 

Oh! Sebastian! Oh! 

SEBASTIAN 

Come in ! — 't is nobody. Eh ! My poor wits 
Are all rough shod. 

{Knocking is heard at the door?) 

Come in ! Come in ! Come in ! 
(He goes to the door and opens it but nobody is there?) 
Mary have mercy on me ! Sure I heard 
Somebody knocking. Who goes there ? No sound ! 
Yet by the Blessed Saints I swear I heard 
A voice that called Sebastian. 

(A strain of music delicately sweet mingles with 
the wind?) 

Mercy on me ! 
'T is elfin music. If the Powers of the Air 
Flit forth to-night, why then, my good Sebastian, 
Shut fast thy door and bar it double tight 
And make a cross upon it. 

(Closes door and crosses it.) 



ROSE OF THE WIND 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Sebastian ! 

SEBASTIAN 



No! 



Thou art not of my kind. 



ROSE OF THE WIND 

Open! 

SEBASTIAN 

Ye saints ! 
Keep well Sebastian's soul. I '11 get to work, 
For if to-night spells move abroad and charms 
Such as might whirl a spirit from its flesh, 
I '11 grip my hand upon some solid thing 
And so cleave to the earth. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Let me come in. 

SEBASTIAN 

Away with thee ! I am an honest cobbler. (In a 

loud voice as he hammers?) 
Rat a tat tat ! 

rose of the wind (with music) 
I have traveled far ! 



4 ROSE OF THE WIND 

SEBASTIAN 

Waste being ! 
I '11 sing a song myself and drown the music. 
(Sings) 
'Judas ran In sandals, 
Thomas wore a shoe, 
But Jesus Christ went barefoot 
The whole day through, 
(Outside, the sound of laughter and of music.) 
Is Heaven itself not wroth ? 
'T is blasphemy. 

ROSE OF THE WIND (outside) 

I am hungry, good Sebastian* 

Sebastian (singing) 

Peter had an oaken staff, 
John an hazel one, 
But Jesus Christ he only had 
A cross to lean upon. 

ROSE OF THE WIND (outside) 

My feet are cold, Sebastian. 

SEBASTIAN 

What of that ? 
Thou art an elfin wanderer. I know thee ! 



ROSE OF THE WIND 5 

If thou shouldst warm thy feet before my fire 
I 'd see thy magic slippers curled at the toe ! 
Thou art not my kindred. (Sings) 

John had a scarlet robe, 

Zebbeus wore a blue — 

ROSE OF THE WIND (outside) 

My cloak is full of snow, Sebastian. 

SEBASTIAN 

Hence ! 
And yet — if 't were some traveler — some poor 

child 
Lost in the night — Bah ! 'Tis of alien breed. 
If I should let it in, 't would weave a spell 
About me and my leather, set my shoes 
Belike to dancing, with nobody in them, 
Until my wits were wild as sea-gulls. No, 
Keep to thy darkness — and I, by that St. Thomas 
They say was a shoemaker and an honest man, 
Will keep a hold upon my leather. 

rose of the wind (from the darkness) 

Oh! 
I am so weary ! 

Sebastian (half persuaded) 
*T is a human voice. 



6 ROSE OF THE WIND 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Let me come in ! 

SEBASTIAN 

Some traveler gone astray ! 
Lost from the pilgrimage perchance — that goes 
To Our Lady's Shrine. Sure there 's no need to 

fear ! 
We should be kind to those that seek the cross. 

ROSE OF THE WIND (outside) 

Be kind to me. 

(Sebastian goes to the door.) 

SEBASTIAN 

Well ! Well ! A moment only ! 
I cannot turn thee hence ! 

( Opens door and upon the threshold stands Rose 
of the Wind, beautiful and small. She is 
wrapped in a scarlet cloak.*) 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Am I so fearful, 
When thou dost see me ? 

SEBASTIAN 

Why, thou art a maid — 
And thou art cold and hungry. 



ROSE OF THE WIND 7 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Sooth, I am. 

SEBASTIAN 

Sweet Heaven forgive me that I let my fear 

Of airy powers so closely lead me on 

To an ill deed, for I had nearly driven thee, 

A wanderer, from my door — and thou, a woman 

And perchance very weary. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

I am ! I am ! 

SEBASTIAN 

Come warm thyself. 

ROSE OF the wind {crouches by fire) 
I am so cold. 

SEBASTIAN 

Poor child ! 
But see — I lay a fagot on the fire. 
Put out thy feet and warm them. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

{Gathers mantle more closely around her, hiding 
her feet, which are shod in elfin slippers.) 

No! No! No! 
I '11 warm my hands ... I see thou art a cobbler. 
Whose shoes are those ? 



8 ROSE OF THE WIND 

Sebastian (at bench) 

I make them for my bride. 
To-morrow we are married. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Are you ? Oh ! 
And are you sure of it ? 

SEBASTIAN 

I am as sure 
As that our hearts are run into one mould 
By the power of love. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

What then, is love so strong ? 

SEBASTIAN 

It can resist all things. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

So ? Can it ? 

SEBASTIAN 

Aye! 
Even the spells of fairies. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Is it so strong ? 
And is she beautiful ? 



ROSE OF THE WIND 9 

SEBASTIAN 

She is as fair 
As the Virgin Mary — and she is good. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Where is she ? 
I wish that I could see so fair a woman. 

SEBASTIAN 

Well, bide awhile and thou shalt see her soon. 
She comes to get her shoes. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

They are very ugly. 
Will they not hurt her feet ? 

SEBASTIAN 

Why child, this leather 
Is soft as may be. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Yet I think my feet 
Would bleed in them. And they are heavy. 

SEBASTIAN 

No, 
They are as light as I could make them. 



io ROSE OF THE WIND 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Oh! 

But can she dance in them? Now mine — 

(She drops off her scarlet cloak and shows her 
scant green gown. She wears green slippers 
curled at the toe. She dances and outside is 
heard a peal of elfin music.) 

SEBASTIAN 

Ye saints ! 
Those are the elfin slippers, made of green 
And curled up at the toe ! Thou art no woman. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

What ? Am I not, Sebastian ? 

SEBASTIAN 

Thou art a waif ! 
Brief devil of brightness. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Am I that, Sebastian ? 

SEBASTIAN 

Thou hast betrayed me and with thee a spell 
Has fallen on this thatch. Thou alien spirit! 
Out with thee, in God's name ! 



ROSE OF THE WIND n 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Oh good Sebastian, 
Give me a cup of water. 

Sebastian {confounded") 

A cup of water! 
What shall I say to the devil that is in need? 
For Holy Writ has left no speech at all 
When evil powers beg for the little gift 
Heaven bids us always give. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

I am thirsty. Pray 
Give me a cup of water. 

SEBASTIAN 

Well, I '11 give thee, 
If when thou hast drunk it, thou wilt go. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

That will I — 
If thou dost make me. 

SEBASTIAN 

Open not the door 
While I go out. 

(Sebastian places shoes on floor by bench.) 



iz ROSE OF THE WIND 

Let in no evil powers. 
To dance about my hearth. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Speed thee ! I 'm dying 
For a little cup of water. 

SEBASTIAN 

Let no one in. 

{Goes out by inner door.) 

rose OF the wind (lifting her arms as if in relief) 

Oh I am faint. How heavy is the air 

Of their mortality. It burdens me. 

Such would it be to go thickly involved 

Like them, in a body not built like mine, of dream. 

(She looks at the shoes on the floor by the bench.) 
No wonder that the feet of men are slow ! 
What heavy shoes ! and down what weary roads 
They all must travel ! never feel the air 
But only earth beneath them ! Hey — I '11 give 

them 
A festival for once ! 

(She dances amid music, beckoning to the bride's 
shoes. They and the others all follow her along 
the floor, big boots and little slippers?) 



ROSE OF THE WIND 13 

Trip it ! Trip it ! Trip it ! Trip it ! 
{She dances about , laughing, looking over her 
shoulder and beckoning.*) 
Trip it ! Trip it ! Trip it ! Trip it ! 
Underneath the blossoming tree — 
Come, poor shoes, and dance with me. 
Through the streets of elfin town — 
Where the golden flowers fall down — 
Down — adown — 
Golden flowers fall down. 
Trip it — trip it — trip it — trip it. 
Trip it ! Trip it ! 
(A voice calling outside.) 

VOICE 

Rose of the Wind ! 

(She hurries to the door.) 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Come in ! come in ! come in ! 
{She flings wide the door and amid moonbeams 
enters a minstrel, dressed in fairy green. 
He carries a harp.) 
Come in, oh Magic Minstrel ! Take with powers 
Of music and of air this mortal dwelling. 



H 



ROSE OF THE WIND 



So brief a space hast thou been gone from us, 
Thy kindred. Still the tree whose plumed boughs 
Are soft as wings of birds, sings on, sings on. 
Nor yet the silence of the elfin night 
Obscures that music. Still the unseen pastures 
Stretched warm and cordial through the rain and 

sleet 
Laugh out beneath our dancing while we feed 
Our dreamy, soft, meandering flocks, with horns 
Moon-tipped and lilied fleeces blossoming white — 
Kine of the milk of sleep. And thou art gone 
From us so small an hour. Thou art alone, 
But yet thou hast grown pale. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

I have looked upon 
The face of Man — and I am weary. 

MINSTREL 

Nay — 
But hast thou seen the woman ? 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

She has not come. 
But she is coming — Look, to get her shoes ! 
[Points at them.) 



ROSE OF THE WIND 15 

Those! If my feet were doomed to travel in 

leather 
They would break upon the stone. 

MINSTREL 

She '11 dance to-night 
Among the fairies. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Shall she ? 

MINSTREL 

She must run 
With me up steepy mountains of the dark, 
And plunge into black chasms of the air 
And dance among the milk-white million kine 
That feed on sleeping flowers underneath 
The blossoming dream forests. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Will she ? Nay, 
But if she will not go ? 

MINSTREL 

I saw her face 
And I desire its beauty. 



1 6 ROSE OF THE WIND 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

But she loves 
The cobbler. 

MINSTREL 

I am strong. My thought astride 
The tempest, bridles it, and with a tune 
I have undone the works of God. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

He loves her. 

MINSTREL 

Who hears my tune must dance and follow me. 

(He plays on his harp and Rose dances?) 
Lo, thine own feet ! Yet thou art of my kind 
And wise and powerful. Yet thine own feet 
Must run because I play. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Nay ! 't is my slippers ! 
Our elfin shoes are curiously made, 
For they must follow music. But they tell me, 
These mortals — in this world there 's nothing 

strong 
Save only love. 

nora (outside) 

Sebastian ! 



ROSE OF THE WIND 17 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

She has come ! 
Back — back — ye shoes ! Obey me ! To your 
places ! — 
(The shoes all trip back to their places?) 
Now for thy magic ! 

(Nora enters?) 
nora {looking around) 

Sebastian ! Where is he gone ? 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

I asked him for a cup of water. 



NORA 

So. 
And who art thou ? 



ROSE OF THE WIND 

Rose of the Wind they call me. 
And I was cold and lost in the night. 

NORA 

And he 
Has taken you in to warm you ? You are pale. 
Have you traveled far ? 



1 8 ROSE OF THE WIND 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

I have traveled from a land 
That lies so very far because 't is near. 
Aye, nearer than the air ! And nearnesses 
To mortal men are dangerous deep crevasses, 
Waste chaos — dread oblivion. 

NORA 

What strange speech ! 
Whence comest thou ? 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

I came not ! I am there ! 
'T is all around me. Eternally I sit 
Beneath a blossoming tree ! Dost thou not see 
The golden flowers fall down — adown — adown 
The golden flowers fall down ! 



I am afraid. 

MINSTREL 

Look at me — Beautiful. 
And I will show thee whence she came ! Dost thou 
Not pine to see her country ! It is fair 
As daybreak when none sees it. 



ROSE OF THE WIND 19 

NORA 

I do not know thee. 

MINSTREL 

But I know thee — The charmed hour has come ! 
And I will show thee many a lovely tree 
And fruits whereof the taste is sweet, and bread 
That melts like snow-white honey; stars — and 

nights — 
And powers and thrones, and roseate dawns blown 

thin 
With the vast breath of time. 

NORA 

I know thee now ! 
Evil is near me ! Stand thou back from me. 
Thou art an elemental — and on my brow 
There burns the cross of my baptism. 

minstrel (playing) 

Listen ! 

rose OF THE wind (singing and dancing around 
Nora) 
Wild was the wind that flew 
From the slope of the purple hill. 
And " Oh" said the white cloud, sweet as dew, 
" / travel whither I will" 



zo ROSE OF THE WIND 

MINSTREL 

Dance ! Dance ! 

nora {struggling with the spell) 

I will not ! Oh ye loves of God, 
Lay hold on me ! 

rose of the wind (singing and dancing to the tune) 

Swift was the cloud that flew 
Over the purple hill. 

And " Oh" cried the shadow, soft and blue, 
" / travel whither I will." 

nora (moaning and struggling away) 

Some magic is upon me. 
I love Sebastian — and would run from him ! 
Oh I must dance ! — but if I dance, where to ? 
Mother of God ! 

rose of the wind (singing and dancing to the tune) 

The piper blew and she heard 
From the slope of the unseen hill — 
And "Oh" cried the heart, as it flew like a 
bird, 
" I fly wherever I will." 



ROSE OF THE WIND 21 

nora {rushes from the door into inner room with a 
fierce struggle) 

Sebastian ! 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

I tell you that to-night, my elfin brother, 
A strange time comes upon us and a thing 
Whereof we have no knowledge. 

MINSTREL 

Never before 
Has mortal maid refused to follow me 
When I played the magic music. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

You did not see 
Her eyes were on the cross ! But I will help you, 
For I would have her gone ! Sebastian's face 
Seems beautiful to me — as hers to thee. 
Oh I would have her hence — and when she is gone 
I will tarry with him, maybe — if I like. 
He is gracious as green trees. 

(Taking off her shoes.) 

Lo now, my shoes ! 
They cannot help but dance when thou dost play, 
For they are woven of spells and charms and 
dreams 



22 ROSE OF THE WIND 

And emptiness and magic — and no man 
Did stitch them for me. 

(She sets them on the floor where Sebastian 
placed the leather shoes.} 

Look — I set them here ! 
And when she sees them she will put them on, 
And thou shalt play, my brother, and she dance 
Out, out into the night ! And then this man 
Shall sit by me and smile. 

(Sebastian enters with Nora. He carries a 
cup of water.*) 

Sebastian (to Nora, who is faint with terror) 

Hush, foolish child. 
There is no power on this earth can take 
My own betrothed from out my arms. Hush now — 
I have thee charmed with love and that 's a spell 
That binds the angels, so they ever fly 
About God's throne like great white birds — as 

thou 
Shalt see some day, if thou art good ! In sooth 
Thou art so good I love thee more and more. 

(To the Minstrel) 
Thou art a stranger ! Rest thou at my hearth. 

(To Rose of the Wind) 
I bade thee keep my door shut. 



ROSE OF THE WIND 23 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

It was music 
That blew it open. 

THE MINSTREL 

I am a traveling player 
With no thought save for tunes. 

SEBASTIAN 

Well — rest thee ! 
(Giving cup to Rose of the Wind.) 

Drink ! 
(*To Nora, who clings to him trembling?) 
Take heart, my Nora ! He 's a harmless fellow. 
And after supper he shall play us a tune. 
Wilt thou make him a cake? Thou wilt not? 

Thou shalt do 
Just as thy sweet will bids thee. Go now — look 
At the shoes I made thee — set beside my bench 
Until to-morrow — 

(^Turning her toward the bench?) 

I must mend the fire. 

nora {taking up the fairy slippers) 
What pretty slippers! 

SEBASTIAN 

You like them ? 



24 ROSE OF THE WIND 

NORA 

But so fine! 
So soft ! So fair and fragile as if wrought 
From down of humming-birds. 

Sebastian {from the fire) 

It was good leather ! 
I paid a price for it. 

NORA 

Curled at the toe ! 
They are the prettiest shoes in all the world. 

Sebastian {absorbed with mending the fire) 
Then try them on. 

(Nora pulls off' her own shoes and puts on the 
magic slippers^ while Rose of the Wind 
croons softly.) 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Swift was the slope that ran 

From the steep of the purple hill^ 

And " Oh" cried the brook^ U I am freer than 

man^ 
For I travel wherever I will" 
(The Minstrel begins to play and Nora to dance?) 
The tune all night and day 
Calls from the purple hill 



ROSE OF THE WIND 25 

And "Oh" cried the feet that danced for aye y 
"We dance wherever we will! " 



NORA 

Sebastian ! Help me ! 

Sebastian (seizing her in his arms) 
Did you call ? 

NORA 

The tune ! 
I cannot help but follow it. 

Sebastian (to minstrel) 
Stop! 

Rose of the Wind (while the Minstrel plays) 

Peace ! 
Thou hast no part in it. The hour lies 
Betwixt him and this woman ! No hand of thine 
Laid upon hers can help her now. 

SEBASTIAN 

Thou art 
The very power of darkness. But there are hands 
Strong and invisible as thine own spells, 



26 ROSE OF THE WIND 

And they move all things, even the heart of God. 
The hands of prayer ! 

(Kneels at the crucifix) 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

The hour is come! 

Sebastian (praying) 

Oh God 
Have mercy on us ! 



Look at me, Beautiful ! 
Let us go out, for now along the glade 
My people run on moonbeams, and 't is time 
That we should laugh together. 

nora (dancing) 

I '11 not go ! 

minstrel (playing) 
But look at me. 

NORA 

No. 

MINSTREL 

Come to me. 

NORA 

I will not ! 



ROSE OF THE WIND 27 

MINSTREL 

Lay thou a hand on me. 

nora (as if charmed) 

Some evil will 
Has entered me. Stand back from me. I know thee. 
Thou art an elemental and I fear thee. 

MINSTREL 

Then run from me. 

NORA (going toward him slowly as in a dream) 
I am running. 

rose of the wind (with mockery) 

In a dream ! 
Sebastian (praying) 
Heaven have mercy. 

minstrel 
Curse me ! 

NORA (going nearer ) helplessly) 

I do curse thee. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

But in a dream. 



28 ROSE OF THE WIND 

Sebastian {praying) 

Oh, Heaven have mercy on us. 

minstrel {playing) 
Hide from me ! 

nora {going nearer to Minstrel, as if entranced) 

I have hidden from thee ! Oh — 
Thou knowest that I hide — buried in a gulf 
Of darkness terrible, wherein no star 
Has ever ventured. I have obscured myself 
In pitiless cold such that thy essences 
To meet, would fly asunder. 

rose of the wind 

In a dream. 

Sebastian {praying) 
Have mercy on us ! 

MINSTREL 

Take thou thy Love's hand. 

nora {drawing nearer) 
It lies in his. 



ROSE OF THE WIND 29 

minstrel {playing) 

A midnight power now 
Has snatched thy essence. Thy enchanted thought 
Is ridden by a tune and in thy flesh 
My music trembles. Now a vast sweet air 
Blows in on thee and it will have thee hence 
To be an element. . . . Wouldst thou escape ? 
Then cleave unto the cross. 

nora {clinging to Minstrel, still tranced) 

I cleave to the cross. 



ROSE OF THE WIND 

A dream! 



Sebastian {praying) 
Have mercy on us ! 



{Harp playing of its own accord while he draws 
Nora to him.) 

Is this the love 
That ruleth all things ? Lie thou on my breast. 

Nora {clinging to his bosom, speaking from a dream) 

I lie in the bosom of God and round about 
I see the plumage of the great white birds 



3 o ROSE OF THE WIND 

That shine and sing forever around God's heart 
And are the angels — 

Sebastian (starting up in despair) 

O thou God of Love I 

minstrel (playing) 

Is this the love that ruleth all things ? Dance ! 
(They approach the door) 

rose of the wind (clapping her hands) 
Out! Out! 

(They go forth into the night) 

SEBASTIAN 

Oh sacred power of the Cross ! 
How thou hast failed me ! 

rose of the wind (mirthfully) 

Come to me — Beautiful ! 
And sit upon my hearth and tell me things, 
Now that the woman leaves us. 

SEBASTIAN 

What 's a prayer ? 
That can be spellbound unto earth — yes, snared 
In the fowler's net and never fly to Heaven ! 
(Rushes toward door) 



ROSE OF THE WIND 31 

I will go after her! No mountain steep, 
No deep divide, no gulf, no seas shall keep 
My love from me — 

(He stops at threshold.) 

No door leads out to that 
Enchanted land where she has gone. It lies 
In a pale world of thought and I must find 
Some secret road of dreams, imaginings, 
Ways spiritual — 

rose OF the wind (going to him) 

Oh look ! Thine eyes are wet! 
(He puts her from him.) 
Sebastian, speak to me ! 

SEBASTIAN 

Thou foam of evil ! 
Why dost thou linger ? Speak ! What greater 

sorrow 
Wilt thou bring upon my house ? 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

I ? Sorrow ? No ! 
I am the one that laughs eternally 
Outside of good, and free — darting in light. 
My inner self sits laughing in a dell 



32 ROSE OF THE WIND 

All golden, underneath a blossoming tree 
From which the golden flowers fall down, adown, 
The golden flowers fall down ! 

Sebastian (bitterly) 
Thou hast brought me only tears ! 

rose of the wind (caressing his cheek) 

Tears ? What are they ? 
(Drawing back her hand,) 
What 's this upon my hand ! It fell from you ! 
Is it a tear ? 

SEBASTIAN 

Poor alien ! Yes ! 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

It shines! 
How beautiful ! I think there is nothing at all 
In my own country half as sweet and small ! 
Where did it come from ? 

SEBASTIAN 

Out of sorrow, waif — 
That God has brought to me to minister to ! 
Out of deep grief. 



ROSE OF THE WIND 33 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

I wish I had some tears 
For all my own. Wilt thou not give me thine ? 

SEBASTIAN 

Thou couldst not take them from me. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

No ? And why ? 

SEBASTIAN 

Thou dost not love me. 

ROSE OF THE WIND ' 

But I do. 

SEBASTIAN 

Frail child! 
*T is but a word to thee ! 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

The fairies love ! 
I like to see thee by me, hear thy voice, 
And have thee see me. 

SEBASTIAN 

'T is the shadow of love ! 



34 




ROSE 


OF 


THE 


WIND 






ROSE 


OF 


THE WIND 


But 


why 


! 














SEBASTIAN 








Thou hast 


no 


soul ! 





ROSE OF THE WIND 

But those with souls, 



How do they love ? 

SEBASTIAN 

They bear and suffer much 
And take the tears from their beloved's eyes. 

rose of the wind (singing wildly) 

And " Oh" cried the shadow soft and blue, 
" / travel whither I will" 

(Grows serious.) 
I wish I had a soul ! 

SEBASTIAN 

Then thou must pay 



The price of it. 



ROSE OF THE WIND 

And what is that? 



ROSE OF THE WIND 35 

SEBASTIAN 

Pale shred 
Of moonbeams and of darkness, thou must do 
For him thou lovest some action that shall rend 
As 't were the flesh from off thy bones, and laugh 
For its dear hardness. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

I know not what you mean — 
Yet I would know — 

SEBASTIAN 

Then kneel before the cross. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

I cannot touch it ! — Fool ! thou mockest me ! 
An element can only touch gross matters 
Through charms and spells and secret influences. 
I am a shadow and cannot come so close 
As to lay a hand on it. 

SEBASTIAN 

Then pray. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

I cannot ! 
And that thou knowest also ! 



36 ROSE OF THE WIND 

(She goes towards the crucifix but retreats as 
if impelled by some outer power) 

No! No! No! 
I cannot look at it. It drives me back ! 
Oh I was wrong to venture among men ! 
I must flee from it. My sprite must fare clean 

through 
The soft thick substance of the wall ! 

( The fire burns with great brightness and the 
shadow of the cross, tall and spectral, looms 
plainly on the wall behind her. She is re- 
treating towards it, unwittingly, through the 
remainder of her speech.) 

Back! Back! 
I '11 not approach thee ! In the world of men 
They say there 's no escaping it ; that where 
They go it still is there, and they must seek it, 
For it is strong as Love's own self! But love, 
I have seen, is not so strong. I am a shadow! 
Let men be moved by substance but not I 
That am touched by shadows only. 

Soon shall I slip 
Soft through the wood of your wall and be out- 
side 
And alien once more ! . . . 

(As if in pain) 

Ah! — What is this? 



ROSE OF THE WIND 37 

(She has retreated to the wall and crouches, not 
knowing it, at the foot of the shadow cross.} 
Where am I ? What has happened ? Upon me 
Strangeness has fallen ! 

Sebastian (in awe) 

The shadow of the cross ! 

rose of the wind (in deep suffering) 

I cannot move from it ! Oh, what was I 

But a bright nothing! Seeming gathered and shaped 

From windy elements and glittering lights 

That blaze and are not ! I was the void, seen 

By eyes of men that weave a loveliness 

With naught behind it. A breath of nothingness ! 

That blown across your faces, cold, did get 

A warmth out of your bosoms ! I have perched 

Like laughter on the lips of dying men, 

And they have cried, " The Void." But I was not. 

I have flitted in sharp light across men's eyes 

And they have chased me and have traveled far 

From God for me ! And lo, I was not ! Then 

I have laid a subtle hand upon their souls 

And they have bled beneath my touch and cried, 

"There is no God in Heaven," and behold, 

I was not ! But a change has come upon me ! — 

And God, that bids even nothingness to serve, 



38 ROSE OF THE WIND 

Has bound me, that was nothing. I remember 
How I have heard that, in the beginning, God 
Did set his eye on emptiness and made 
A sweet earth of it. So even upon me, 
The denial of his Being, emptiness, 
The Shaper has laid hold, so I must be 
A word out of his mouth to say " He is " ! 
Oh, bitter, bitter ! . . . 

{A moment of supreme anguish and she raises her 
head in wonder, with an exalted countenance^ 
Now at last I see! . . • 
I see! 

Sebastian (in awe) 

What seest thou ? 

rose of the wind {transfigured) 

Love ! . . . Come thou to me ! 
(Sebastian approaches her. She holds up her hands.) 
I hold my hands up to thee, for the soul 
Now born within me needs a gift to make 
Me beautiful — for Love! For now my need 
Is but to grow more beautiful. 

SEBASTIAN 

Strange spirit — 
How can I help thee ! 



ROSE OF THE WIND 39 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

It is well with thee 
To give me what I ask, for it will ease thee, 
And I desire it deeply. 

SEBASTIAN 

Tell me. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

See! 
I lift my hands up to thee — like a cup 
Sphered for the water of life ! I love thee so. 
Lo — in my hands I will receive thy tears ! 

Sebastian (tenderly) 
They could not hold my tears J 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Yet give them me. 

SEBASTIAN 

I cannot give them. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Why? 

SEBASTIAN 

But thou canst take. 



4° 



ROSE OF THE WIND 



ROSE OF THE WIND 

How — Beautiful ? 

SEBASTIAN 

Child — if thou bringest back 
My bride — my best Beloved. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

If she comes 
There will be a woman in thy house. 

SEBASTIAN 

Yes, child. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

And thou wilt love her ? 

SEBASTIAN 

Yes. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

And more than me ? 

SEBASTIAN 

I would need to love her more. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Then could my hands 



Gather up all thy tears? 



ROSE OF THE WIND 41 

SEBASTIAN 

Then in thy heart 
Mine own would leave its tears. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

I will not do it ! 
I will not do it ! — and yet — what is this need 
That drives me where I would not ? 
(Song is heard outside?) 
(Song) 
And " Oh" cried the shadow soft and blue, 
u / travel whither I will' 9 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

I'll call her back. 
(She calls.) 
Back — Brother of the Air ! Lead home again 
The woman thou hast with thee ! 

(The door opens and the Minstrel enters, still 
playing, with Nora.) 

Nora (dreaming) 

My feet are streams 
That shine through flowering meads. I am lying hid 
A thousand years beneath the blossoming tree 
Whose leaves sing out like birds. 



42 ROSE OF THE WIND 

ROSE OF THE WIND (to MlNSTREL) 

Oh cease thy tune. 
(//<? continues playing.} 



Upon a bed of milk-white blossoms laid, 
Sweetness falls on me, unto which men's slumber 
Is discord harsh. At mid-noon I will eat 
A mellow fruit and live a thousand years, 
Dancing along a starlight, and will sleep, 
And wake, and live a thousand years again, 
And yet once more will sleep. 

ROSE OF THE WIND (to MlNSTREL) 

I beg of thee, 
Stop thou thy tune. 

NORA 

(Minstrel continues his playing and Nora is 
still entranced.^) 

They say that far away 
In a dim country, once I loved a man 
Whose name I have forgotten. 'T is not so, 
But wreathed with lights moon-pale I dance and 

sing 
Under a blossoming tree. The flowers fall down. 
The golden flowers fall down, adown, adown. 



ROSE OF THE WIND 43 

minstrel {leading to the door) 
Beautiful — wouldst thou stay ? 

nora {following) 

No — I would go. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

She would not follow thee — save for the shoes 
That dance in spite of her — and they are mine! 
I pray you give them back. 

MINSTREL 

Take them. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Then cease 
Thy tune and stop her dancing. Wilt thou ? 

MINSTREL 

Aye! 
If thou wilt do the thing I ask. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

I Will. 

(The Minstrel quiets his music till it fades away.) 

nora (as if waking) 

The light fades from the sky. A thousand leaves 
Fall from the tree of life. No more, no more, 



44 ROSE OF THE WIN^ 

The birds sing in them. All grows pale and thin 
And is not any longer. Do I sleep ? 
Or waken ? 



Sebastian (taking her in his arms) 
Nora ! 






Nora (clinging to him) 

Sebastian — tell me where 
I have been this night. 

SEBASTIAN 

Take off the accursed shoes. 

nora (in wonder taking them off) 
Thou madest them. 

SEBASTIAN 

They are magic. 



ROSE OF THE WIND 

They are spun 
Of lights and laughters. 

NORA 

Virgin Mary ! 



ROSE OF THE WIND 45 

Sebastian {giving her those he had made) 

Here — 
Stout Christian leather! 

rose of the wind (not moving from the shadow 
cross) 

Give me back again 
The little shoes I lent thee. 

{Receives them.) 

MINSTREL 

Dost thou remember 
What I required of thee ? 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Ask it. 

MINSTREL 

Cast 
Thy shoes upon the flames. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

What ? burn my shoes ? 



I will not do it. 



minstrel {playing> 
Then — 



46 ROSE OF THE WIND 

nora (to Sebastian, trembling) 

Oh hold me close. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

But wait ! If I should burn them, never more 
Shall my feet dance along the slope of the wind 
Close to the dark crevasses of the night, 
Along the freezing glacier light of stars, 
Me chill and beautiful as uplifted snow 
That hath a shape to it. Nor shall I plunge 
Into the darkness, sinking my body deep 
Into oblivion such as the soul of man 
Having come nigh to, disbelieves. No more 
Shall I trip lightly over the beamy floor 
Of wind stretched over golden fields of wheat 
Nor climb the winding turrets of the air 
To look from windows high and darkly set 
In the thick bastions of the night. No more 
Shall I smile through the sea and shapen sweet 
As silvery ripples, sink and sing and float 
And stream where the moon leadeth. I cannot run 
Through solid earth, melt lightly through a stone, 
And leave behind me like a thin blue smoke 
The curling wreaths of substance. Nor can I steal 
Soft through the hearts of men and pluck the fruit 
That in their Souls' sweet Paradise doth grow 



ROSE OF THE WIND 47 

Upon the Tree of Life, leaving it bare, 
With naught to feed upon ; nor snatch from them 
Their secret laughters, and their wisdom take 
So that they go astray — 

Shall I do this ? 
And for the sake of tears ! Oh what are tears 
That my soul must needs demand them ! 

MINSTREL 

Burn thy shoes — 
As thou hast pledged me — or else depart with me 
And see man's face no more and I will bind thee 
So that thou shalt not grieve. 

rose of THE wind (not heeding him) 

They say that tears 
Will make our souls more beautiful — 

Nay then 
I do bethink me. Should I take this spirit 
God gives to mortals, then must I also take 
Mortality upon me. I must yield 
My airy sweetness that can still defy 
Changes and seasons and I must breathe out 
My windy cleanness and take in vaporous death. 
I must weave round me cast-off old despairs 
And ancient sorrow, and let disaster creep 
Through all my subtle flesh. My unveiled eyes 



48 ROSE OF THE WIND 

That now survey all time I must submit 
Unto confusions, with my wits involve 
Bewilderments and let my heart accept 
Tears — beautiful strange tears! 
(As if stifled.) 

Oh this dim air, 
That is so full of sorrow, weighs me down ! 
And if I take on me the grosser stuff, 
Astonished at the darkness I shall grope 
Like one gone blind and I shall sin and fall 
Into disfavor with great God. Oh then 
If all my essence in fierce flame should hiss 
Like dew immortal — 

(Looking at Sebastian.) 

And for what ? That thou 
Mayst love this woman best ! Hadst thou a heart 
For me — oh gladly would I then forsake 
My brighter being. I would sicken for thee! 
For this be freely damned. But it would bring 
Only more laughter to me — me — who have 

laughed 
From the beginning — 

(Grappling with the shadow of the cross.) 

Off from me, fearful shade ! 
That hast so bound me . . . 

Still my soul implores 
Her heritage of tears. 



ROSE OF THE WIND 49 

minstrel (playing and singing) 

And "Ob," cried the heart, as it flew like a bird, 
u / travel wherever I will" 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Thou shalt not charm me. 
For what my soul requires — that shall she have, 
Though I serve bleeding . . . 

Christ ! I kiss my shoes ! 
They are such pretty ones. They took my feet 
Upon such starry journeys. 

(Casts them into the fire, still crouching by the 
shadow cross. As the shoes burn, the fire biases 
with wonderful glory . Strange dancing lights 
and splendors fill the room, which suggest in 
tneir shapes garlands, flowers, trees. There is 
wild music.) 

Burn ! In flames 
Depart, my powers ! For shod in you I see 
My supernatural glory dance away. 
Aye, bid them with thy music once again, 
While they dance out to death. 
(The light fades.) 

minstrel (at the door) 

Farewell — new mortal ! 
Never again beneath the blossoming tree 



5 o ROSE OF THE WIND 

Shall we run all together ! — Away ! Away ! 
I must be gone ! 'T is midnight. 

(Opens door and lets in long moonbeam, which 
falls across Rose of the Wind. She rises 
and steps into the glory) 

Hail ! my fellows ! 
(A brief glimpse through the door of dancing 
shapes. He rushes out amid music, closing 
door.) 
Away ! Away ! 

(Sebastian and Nora stand motionless in each 
other's arms.) 

rose of the wind {approaching them wistfully) 

Now we are left alone. 
Speak to me, kind Sebastian. 

Sebastian (not hearing) 

I love thee, Nora. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Speak to me, sister. 

nora (not hearing) 

I love thee, oh Sebastian. 



ROSE OF THE WIND 51 

rose of the wind {turning away) 

How cold I am — the fire is very low. 
I '11 lay a log upon it, lest they feel 
The chill. How heavy ! Once I had lifted it 
With the tip of a finger. Ah, I had forgot 
I had grown human. Yet I'll lift. 

(She heaves up from the fireside a huge log 
rudely twisted in a shape suggesting a cross.) 
The weight ! 
(Sinking with it to the floor.) 
Beautiful ! — Speak to me ! I am alone 
And know not one among you. May I bide 
Beneath your thatch awhile ? I '11 serve you both 
And eat — so little. Only let my feet 
Grow heavy, running for you. Only let 
My hands grow hard — that are so soft — to serve 

you. 
Teach me to bring the wood, to draw the water, 
To call the sheep at dusk. Oh I would learn 
What things would please you. Look, I can lift 
logs ! 
" (Again she falls beneath the burden.) 
But oh, the weight ! . . . 

I am a beggar — see! 
Barefooted, even ! — Speak to me — Beautiful ! 
Speak to me — kind Sebastian. 



52 ROSE OF THE WIND 

Sebastian {gazing at Nora) 

I love thee, Nora. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Speak to me — sister. 

nora {gazing at Sebastian) 

I love thee, oh Sebastian ! 

rose of the wind 

They do not hear me. But I think that God 
Hears in my heart the sound of tears. — 

Nay then, 
I will not listen to them ! Why should I weep 
That these rejoice ? Can I not find again 
The old primeval laughter ? 

What wouldst thou have — 
My soul — that begged for tears ? What wouldst 

thou more ? 
That I should laugh ? — Then I will learn the way 
Back to rejoicing. . . . 

Look — I mend their fire. 
{Strives again with log.) 
I have so far to carry it ! 

{Sinks beneath it.) 

I 'm tired. 



ROSE OF THE WIND 53 

So very tired ! Speak to me, Beautiful. 
Speak to me — kind Sebastian. 

Sebastian (gazing at Nora) 

I love thee, Nora. 

ROSE OF THE WIND 

Speak to me — sister. 

nora (gazing at Sebastian) 

I love thee, oh Sebastian ! 

rose of the wind (gazing at them with supreme 
love) 

Are they not beautiful ! Dear God in Heaven — 
He laughs to see them and the angels laugh ! . . . 
And I laugh too ! . . . 

(Falls on her knees, holding up both hands in 
form of a cup) 

They have given me their tears ! 



NIMROD 
PART I 

One time, in Shinar, when the setting sun, 
With all his thousand javelins, drove the day 
Before him and the myriad tribes of light 
Departed sullenly with bleeding feet, 
Great Nimrod, the strong huntsman of the Lord, 
Returning hot with bloodshed from the chase, 
Beheld great Babel, wrathful, beautiful, 
Burn like a blood-red cloud upon the plain. 
Then Nimrod, when he saw it, laughed aloud, 
And turning to his warriors cried, "Behold 
How those steep battlements defy the cloud 
With starry dome and precipice of brass. 
Their sword-like minarets have stabbed the sun. 
What fiery ledge, what blazing battlement, 
What savage bastion flushed with angry gold 
Bulwarks the dreadful bright acropolis ! 
Look how yon crags of bronze, fantastic, burn 
In God's great conflagration, not consumed, 
Imperishable; but built of flaming cloud 
His high pavilions perish. Lo, how strong 
Yon citadel of stone ! Is it not great ? 



NIMROD 55 

Is it not ribbed with sinew ? Flanked with war ? 
Are not its ramparts beautiful? Lo now 
Whose is the city?" And his warrior chiefs 
Saw how its arrowy splendors smote the light 
And how its ledges, gorges, furious cliffs, 
And all its savage multitudinous crags 
Besieged the silent sky ; then, being amazed, 
Gazing upon such splendors, answered, "Thine." 

For it had come on Nimrod, in the waste, 
That he should build a huge metropolis 
For Bathsheba the queen. And it was built. 
Its strong foundations were sunken in deep rock, 
And on the walls were graven mighty shapes. 
For Nimrod had gone forth and laid his hand 
Upon the barren stones and they were runed 
With ancient script, embodiment of words 
That once were heard in Babel — such utterance 
As when before the flood the sons of God 
Spoke to men's daughters, or when on the sheer 

marge 
Of time stood Adam and with august cries 
Saluted nature — star, sun, cloud, earth, moon, 
Bright angels, wondering beasts — and from his 

lips 
Shook huge ejaculations, piercing calls 
Of keen astonishment, smooth murmuring tones 



56 NIMROD 

When he gazed forth on beauty, and when he saw 
Eve, in her whiteness, the first awful word 
Whereby a man cried unto a woman his love. 
Such was the speech of Babel. These words re- 
vealed 
Men's hearts to one another. For the earth 
Had been made spiritual and with waters purged 
Of ancient wrong and grief. Man was new made. 
Not innocent as in Eden — oh not fresh 
With Paradisal sweetness — but grown wise 
And taught by the sons of God, they set their 

minds 
To august ends and great. So had they left 
Strong nations in the desert and multiplied 
Like myriad hordes of sand and they had raised 
Their thoughts to beauty and conceived high deeds, 
Truths, honors, valors, heroisms, loves, 
Faiths, aspirations, sacrifices, prayers, 
And unto them had built a beauteous speech, 
Revealing all things truly. For not yet 
Was mortal falseness harbored in their thought. 
Imagination had not dreamed of this. 
Not yet the bastions of high Heaven had rocked 
Beneath that onslaught. God's deepest angels hid 
In placid innocence had never yet 
Shed tears of nameless grief nor their warm wings 
Grown chill with that cold vapor from the earth. 



NIMROD 57 

No man had learned how vessels of sweet tone, 
Blessed for the sacred wine of truth, might lift 
To trusting lips abominable drink. 
No man on earth had lied ; but words, fair-shaped, 
Blushed with the spirit's sense, fluid as thought. 
Priest-like their speech moved on its ancient 

task, 
The sacred ceremonials of the truth. 
For with that speech great prophets known of 

old 
With glowing symbols uttered secrets hid ; 
Wonderful doctrines of stars, suns, and moons ; 
Litanies of the seasons; hidden charms 
Wherewith the earth works miracles ; the spells 
Of soft angelic water; the rich creeds 
Of deeply brooding air entranced at noon ; 
High versicles that from the lips of time 
Spake of the eternal ; runes of numbers, shapes, 
And all the myriad moving powers that build 
The architecture of the world. These words 
Shone in the lucid firmaments of thought, 
The bright melodious orbs of heavenly speech. 
And Nimrod traced their shadows in dark script. 
For he inscribed upon his brassy walls 
Marvelous symbols stranger than the sphinx 
Breeding eternal secrets; gorgeous shapes, 
Bright-blazoned, beautiful ; letters, that as thick 



58 NIMROD 

As footprints of innumerable slaves, 
Swept on the stately caravans of thought ; 
And there were signs and symbols, deeply carved, 
Rich characters that wreathed like thick-set vines 
Yielded a mortal vintage of sweet tone 
Whereof the juice was wisdom, and God's sons, 
When they had drunk of it, forevermore 
Must go enraptured ; jungles of black script, 
Where howling in the wilderness like beasts 
Ranged forth the dreadful wisdoms of the Lord. 
And there were dark and dreaming hieroglyphs, 
Beautiful, old, occult, in which were breathed 
As was God's wind into the clay, grave sounds, 
Angelic musics, syllables austere. 

But when Bathsheba saw those histories, 
How manifold, and how from out those signs 
Spoke prophecies and powers, and how the bronze 
Was dark with secret knowledge and such creeds 
As Nimrod heard from mighty men of old, 
She was astonished, and to her Lord she cried, 
" Art thou not great in Babel ? Art thou not 

wise ? 
Hast thou not learned to read the ancient sign 
God writes upon the wind ? Do not thy words 
Like dawn upon the mountain peaks make plain 
God's will before us ? Is not thy casual speech 



NIMROD 59 

Beautiful to us ? When thou dost comfort us 
With thy deep wisdom, do our souls not feast ? 
Dost thou not cast thy voice abroad like thun- 
der 
To teach His law to us ? From His cloudy speech 
Thou hast snatched the fires of His meaning 

down. 
Lo, now, thou hast transcribed for us His lore 
And graved His ancient spelling on the stone. 
Thou art great Nimrod. Where then is the Word 
That burns forever on the midmost page 
Of God's most secret book, in Heaven set deep ? 
What is it ? Canst thou say it ? How long shall 

earth 
Groan with the lack of it, that utterance 
Whereby all things grow beautiful, that Word 
That being spoken, the angels at the gates 
Shall drop their flaming swords, and we return 
Into that Eden — which they tell us of — 
Lost in the forests of the dawn ! Go thou, 
And learn that secret wisdom from the Lord. 
Then, when thou hast revealed it, never more 
Shall our flesh wither, and our souls put on 
Sackcloth and ashes. In shapes fulfilled of light 
We shall attain God's likeness. Never again 
Shall sorrow be upon us nor affliction 
Make in our flesh its lair. But death shall set 



60 NIMROD 

His face away from us. And thou shalt grow 
Ancient in years and beautiful with time. 
And I will bear thee harvests of strong males, 
And thou and all thy sons shall be as Kings. " 
Then Nimrod spoke to Bathsheba, the queen, 
" From out the midmost page of that dark book 
God sets in His deep Heaven, I will bring down 
To thee the blazing fires of the Word 
Whereby this earth shall be lit up and shine 
As with fierce conflagration. Then indeed 
Our souls shall be enlightened. Then our flesh 
Shall blush with joy under the waning moon. 
Then death shall turn his face away. No more 
Shall sorrow be upon us nor affliction 
Make in our flesh its lair. But thou shalt grow 
Ancient in years and beautiful with time. 
And I will lead thee back where Eden glows 
Like dawn across the desert. Am I not he 
That when he speaks, all hearing are astonished ? 
Do not my words teach wisdom ? Does not my 

speech 
Cast scourges on the unrighteous ? But on them 
That fear the Lord is not mine utterance 
Sweet as the rain at noon ? Am I not Nimrod ? 
Lo, thou shalt bear me harvests of strong males, 
And I, and all my sons, shall be as Kings." 



NIMROD 61 

PART II 

And Nimrod looked on Babel and beheld 
How beautiful it was, and how it glowed, 
A rose of splendor, burning on the plain. 
And in his heart the king conspired to build 
Sweeter and lovelier spires, more smiling fanes 
Than ever yet had been upon the earth 
And such vast arches as not yet had been, 
But that with mortal beauty should persuade 
The immortal angels, wondering, to explore 
Those beauteous vaults of glimmering marble 

made, 
Hollowed of whiteness like the sphered moon, 
Roofed terribly with arched and blazing wings; 
Walls like the bosoms of the Cherubim; 
And milk-white pavements, clear and richly pale 
Like alabaster, but of starrier stone, 
Swimming with many a floating sweetness, shed 
From many a violet-colored robe and green, 
Or rosy foot, or viol shaped of gold. 
There should be laughter heard — angelic guests 
At pastime with the queen — and they should play, 
With plumed wings and innocent grave smiles 
And silvery footfalls in the chastened groves; 
And with God's smile upon them, they should speak 
To men His secret Wisdom from the Book. 



6z NIMROD 

Oh, it should be like Paradise new made 

And God himself should walk with them at eve. 

And it was builded and there moved the Queen. 

But if the angels in celestial games 

Down those calm alleys wandering, around 

The rosy pillars swept their golden plumes, 

No pale reflection of their dancing feet 

With starry sweetness pleased the placid stone. 

But still the polished, pale, white pavement shone 

Like smoothed water tranced with many a moon, 

And if they came they tarried there unseen. 

Then, in the streets of Babel, Nimrod made 

A feast before the Lord, and Bathsheba 

Led forth the women; and with shawms blown 

loud, 
With trumpet and with cymbal, they declared 
The greatness of Jehovah ; but Nimrod went, 
And sought the Lord on a high mountain peak, 
And standing with uplifted arms, he raised, 
In great and fearful cries, his voice to God. 
And Nimrod cried aloud, " Lord, I am he 
That crouched alone in the desert. Among rocks 
I herded with the wolves. Then did I seek 
To build unto my people a strong town, 
With bulwarks of firm rock. Then did I heave 
My shoulder to the stone. Lord, I have set 



NIMROD 63 

My citadel upon the plain ; and lest 
My people go astray, I have inscribed 
Upon my brassy walls bright characters 
Uttering knowledge. With a thousand tongues 
My walls proclaim Thee. But that Wisdom, Lord, 
.That burns forever on the midmost page, 
Of thy great Book the awful hieroglyph — 
I have not seen nor spoken. Send from Heaven 
Thy angel to us and I will learn from him 
Thy sacred Word; and when upon that feast 
My spirit has grown wise, lo, I will turn 
My people's hearts to wisdom and we shall be 
Beautiful nations bourgeoning the plain, 
And I and all my sons shall be as kings." 
And he was silent. But upon the town 
No voice shook like thunder, and from the sky 
No angel, sweeping earthward, in mid air, 
Held up God's burning Word. And he was wroth, 
And in his sullen heart defied Jehovah. 
But God sent forth a pale and spectral host 
Of war horse and of rider. From the steeps 
And citadels of cloud on the horizon, 
They mightily plunged upon the embattled plain 
Encircled round great Babel. Blazing scouts 
Skirmished the valley ; shadowy stallions reared, 
Driven by vast archangels, whose fierce spears 
Whirling aloft, they stabbed upon the town. 



64 NIMROD 

A thousand gusty shapes rushed forth to war. 
And there were chariots of dust that drove 
Windily down the plain. Bright meteors lit 
Upon them screaming. Built among the clouds 
Were domes and turrets ; and blazing with pale 

lights 
Acropolis towered above acropolis. 
Then Nimrod, throned upon his peak, looked 

down 
To where the blazing cohorts of the Lord 
Threatened the town with vengeance; and he rose, 
Obscured with wrath as is the sun with cloud. 
And like an engine of dread war he set 
His shoulder to the mountain side and heaved 
Its giant bowlders forth till from the cliff 
With sudden scream, as if some savage chief 
Would drive his angry cohorts into war, 
They leaped with sound of grating wheels and 

plunged 
Down the precipitous slope at God's encampment. 
But Nimrod, leaping to the mightiest stone, 
Then bounding to another as they plunged, 
With arms outstretched and darkly beetling breast, 
With angry locks, with great and god-like eye, 
With furious shouts of battle and laughter huge, 
And challenges to Heaven, scourged with cries 
His screaming stallions manedwith whistling wind 



NIMROD 65 

Goaded the vengeance of His flinty wheels 
That bright with many a whirling fire appeared 
Bestrid with eyes — yes — like the lightning 

perched 
Upon the gale, he swept upon God's hosts 
His monstrous cavalcades. Then, driving down 
His thousand thundering chariots of stone, 
Enraged, enraptured, pale, with bow upraised, 
Great Nimrod shot his arrow at the gods. 
And lo, the heavenly onslaught flamed away. 
God's dark encampment lifted from the plain. 
Then there were rushings heard in the deep air 
And all the spectral host paled from the sky. 

Then Nimrod unto Babel cried aloud. 

" Lo, I have shot in Heaven God's great white horse ! 

With neighings and fearful tramplings he went 

down ! 
And his affrighted angel drifts pale wings 
Across his bosom, lest he take from me 
The anguish of mine arrow in mid air. 
Am I not Nimrod?" And he cried aloud, 
" Am I not Nimrod ? " Then spoke he to his soul: 
" Lo, such dark cities smoulder in my brain 
As light the air with terror. I will achieve 
A great and mighty town such as not yet 
Has mortal plotted and no angel dreamed. 



66 NIMROD 

With my strong ramparts I will storm the sky — 
Yes — cleave it with my turrets. I will lift 
My fortress straight against God's citadels. 
And having with my frontage besieged the pale 
Frontiers of Heavenly air, then will I lift 
My slow invasion to the immortal plains . 
And there, defying all His hosts, will drive 
His bright fleeced whirlwinds; hurricanes with 

eyes; 
His golden-bellied lightnings; shaggy thunders; 
His meteors that dart like screaming birds 
Among tumultuous forests of black night ; 
All strange unhuman monsters that frequent, 
Angelic, brutish, the jungles of fierce air; 
His Silences, that crouch amid the waste 
To slay who heareth them beneath the stars 
Awakened out of sleep ; His awful Noise, 
Whose mane is like a thousand lions' deep, 
And that with fires doth bristle; His Circum- 
stance, 
His Peradventure, His Go To — all beasts 
Furious with dreadful beauty that He keeps 
To rage with splendor up and down this earth ; 
His Wars that move with such velocity 
They shine as sweet as simple doves ; His Feign- 

ings 
Wherewith he shaketh man; His Abominations 



NIMROD 67 

That howl at night, and His deep Desolation 
That seizeth them rejoicing at noon day; 
His Furies — Retributions — that do scream 
From pinnacles of air and plunging down 
Snatch up the guilty conscience, so they keep 
Upon its living flesh perpetual feast; 
Yes, all His angelic beasts that ravage with wrath 
The deep invisible air, these will I slay. 
Hear then ! On His own cohorts will I turn, 
And many a starry breast shall bleed that night 
And many a snow-white sweet immortal shape 
That cannot ever die shall writhe and bend, 
Blown up and down as windy fires would burn. 
And there shall be great tramplings, whinneyings 
Of winged steeds astonished. Archangels pale 
Shall rend their blazing splendors off* and wrapped 
In panic only, seek escape in night, 
To hide them in the vastness. The Cherubim 
Shall swell their gorgeous eyes with dread. So 

then, 
Having dismayed His host, I will besiege 
The splendor of His deep acropolis, 
And thence will drive those inner ones that move 
In garments sweet of pale serenities; 
The great, mild-eyed, most docile, loveliest, 
Whose soft meek bodies sing like great white birds 
Beneath the golden forest of their deep wings, 



68 NIMROD 

Whereof the sound is like a noonday gale, 
That causeth dropping of fruit mild and strange ; 
Whereof the sound is like a silver fountain 
That springeth in a golden basin ; 
Whose placid bodies are like chastened pillars, 
Simple transparencies to the Lord, by which 
A great and arched roof is lifted up, 
That is the embracing splendor of their pinions ; 
Whose bodies are strong as alabaster, shapen 
Of pale translucent brightness, limpid stillness, 
Like shining water wreathed with many a star. 
Oh, as a star deep sunken under water, 
Their bodies are sleeked like ivory set in amber. 
Large, peaceful, bounteous, their dreamy bodies are. 
These, hastening them along their happy halls 
Reared of supreme delight, through corridors 
With music paven, till their ruffled wings 
Ache with my violence, I will drive forth 
Over the high roads of high noon to where 
My earthly citadel shines on the plain. 
So leading in before my people's eyes 
My triumph unbelievable — all these 
Shall pass, meek-footed, wondering, before Her 
That is my Love, my Queen — and they shall go 
Into her chambers and with chastened touch 
Shall lay their hands upon my brazen walls 
And marvel at them, and shall turn mild eyes 



NIMROD 69 

Of deep astonishment when they behold 
Our human beauty, how the pride of man 
Has waxed like cedars where the stars of God 
Walk forth for pleasure and His wind lies down. 
And I will drive them, if I will, as slaves 
To build me huger temples, more awful fanes, 
A terrible citadel from which to heave 
My flaming battle axe at God's own breast! 
Then will I plunge into His secret place 
And snatch from out His page that Hieroglyph. 
So will I scourge to labors beyond thought 
The bare immortal sweetness of their shapes, 
Beating with whips their pale astonished wings, 
Or if it please me, I will comfort them — 
Feed them with mortal fruit and with my hand 
Smooth to obedience their trembling plumes, 
Till their discordant feathers sweetly sing. 
Then when among themselves they speak and 

cry, 
And say to one another, c Brothers, behold ! 
Who is this man that has so driven us 
From our dear placid courts ! that with his thought 
Can scourge us till we cry or run to do 
The whispered bidding of his sleep ! whose wish, 
Being raised against us, fearfully doth blind 
With terror all the century seeing eyes 
That live among our wings ; but, being inclined 



7 o NIMROD 

Can soothe our grief ! Brothers, who is this man 

That hath defeated God and mastered us, 

His great soft snow-white children ? ' — Then 

indeed 
Shall I to my great chamber lead them in, 
Hollowed of splendor, like the sphered moon, 
Roofed over as with fierce and blood-red wings. 
Here, in this chamber, on a polished stone 
As evidence that man shall pass away 
But he whose name endureth on that stone 
Shall be remembered ; from its surface springing 
Two brazen wings of aspect terrible, 
Spreading their steadfast breadth as if to lift 
The name inscribed thereon to Heaven j shall 

flame 
A monstrous syllable, a symbol strange, 
To be a sign and evidence of him 
Who built great Babel in the empty plain, 
The corner-stone and column of its greatness, 
Its roof, its strong foundation, and its wall, 
Its rose in a deep garden, its sweet water 
That is a wellspring in the rock. . . . Lo, now, 
I will go in and write thereon my name, 
That my enslaved great powers shall see and cry, 
'Behold the man that snatched God's Word from 

Heaven, 
Great Nimrod !'"... 



NIMROD 71 

And he built upon the plain 
A mightier city ; and he raised on high 
Sheer peaks of bronze and armaments of domes 
That bright with sullen splendor spread their 

shields 
Against God's anger. But the eternal sky 
Preserved its shape in silence and the sun 
With all its hosts of light sped on its way, 
Bright, unappeasable. And God came down, 
Invisible, in radiance panoplied, 
And spoke with Nimrod. But Nimrod, in his heart, 
Being greatly wroth, hated Him for His speech. 

PART III 

And Nimrod came to Bathsheba the Queen, 
And spoke with her ; but of that golden speech 
There is no likeness upon earth to show 
How mild its sound, how beauteous its shape. 
But when the dying swan fulfills at eve 
His passion on the lake and music swells 
With aching sweetness all his snow-white plumes, 
And he, that never, never shall return, 
Like music burning floats into the sun; 
Or when upon a sleek and polished water 
The moon all night performs her dance serene 
In solitary loveliness; or if 



72 NIMROD 

Smooth hands should serve to beautiful strange 

guests 
Pale- colored honey in a golden. dish; 
Or if a water carrier, in the dusk, 
Should in his earthen jar such water lift 
As stars had shined on, in the wilderness, 
And she who drank it said — it tasteth sweet; 
Oh then, with singing sound and moving shape, 
There would be written on our mortal air 
An old immortal alphabet from which 
Wrapped in her dark and sacred hieroglyph 
An awful visitor with shape unseen 
Would move with music and would take the breath, 
And there would shine along her ancient script 
The solemn beauty of that elder speech. 
For there is not a tongue upon the earth 
To tell how in that city famed of old 
The stately ministers of lovely sound 
Had laid their hands on music and built up 
A gracious architecture of sweet tone; 
Or how their great and gorgeous grammar raised 
Its pillars, arches, corridors, and domes, 
Beneath whose roofs ethereal thoughts like doves 
Melodiously breathed; pale visions swept 
With eyes enraptured; and in music stoled, 
Before the altars, with rituals rich and slow, 
Angelic meanings served before the Lord. 



NIMROD 73 

And Nimrod said to Bathsheba, the Queen, 
" Am I not great ? When I my voice cast forth 
Does it not roar like thunder? Shall I lay 
My hand upon the earth and it not break 
Like potter's clay dried up ? When I go forth 
Does not the ground smoke? Who has seen my 

face 
And, having seen it, not covered up his eyes, 
Crying, 'Great Nimrod' ? Are my feet not set 
Like cedars in the desert? Is not my breast 
Unto my people as a spring that gushes 
Out of a rock? When mine eyes glance abroad 
Do they not pluck up terror as the eagle 
Bears up the ram ? I lifted up my voice 
And cried unto the Lord — yes — unto Heaven 
I shook my spear; yes — unto them that boasted 
Upon the seats of the angels, in high places 
I shook my strong spear! And the Lord was 

vexed 
And He sent down a whirlwind strewn with eyes. 
And it did roar and spread itself and I 
Did cast it howling underneath my feet. 
The whirlwind did I cast beneath my feet. 
The whirlwind burst its belly under me — 
Yes, God's strong whirlwind! Behold, am I not 

great ? 
Am I not dreadful as the unicorn? 



74 NIMROD 

Am I not a palace hung with blazing shields? 
Am I not Nimrod?" 

And Bathsheba spoke, 
And unto Nimrod said, " Oh, thou art He." 

And Nimrod said to Bathsheba, "Why then! 
The whirlwind fell beneath me. I am one 
That with a dagger stabs the empty gale 
And scourging air with whips shall make it bleed ! 
Then was deep space astonished ! For the Lord 
Camped mightily upon the plain. His tents 
Were of thick cloud. His war horses were there, 
His chariots of dust, His righting angels; 
And He did lead on me His cohorts vast, 
His fierce battalions. He swept down on me 
His monstrous meteors. And I laughed at God. 
And riding in thunder down the mountain side 
Unto the lightning I did cry — Thou Fool. 
And I raised up my strong bow and I shot 
Mine arrow at the Gods. And when it fell 
I saw it red with blood. For I did slay 
His strong white horse that plunged upon the gale. 
His fierce horse did I slay that spouted forth 
Pale smoke of vengeance; and the storm white 

angel 
That drove him unto battle, between its wings 
Upon its starry bosom — did I wound. 



NIMROD 75 

Groaning in Heaven His great angel bleeds. 
Am I not as a city girt about 
With forests of tall spears ? Am I not spread ? 
Am I not one whose visage flames like brass ? 
Am I not Nimrod ? " 

And Bathsheba stirred " 
Upon his breast her pale and beauteous face 
And unto Nimrod answered, " Thou art He." 

And Nimrod spoke to Bathsheba and said, 
" Lo, who hath built this citadel ? Who reared 
These furious bastions glittering on the plain ? 
Who walled it round about with dreadful brass ? 
Who founded its deep fortress and decreed, 
Swollen abroad with splendor, terrific domes ? 
Who planted it with green and pleasant trees ? 
Was it God did it ? Who conceived the town ? 
Whose finger sleeked the brazen corridors? 
From whose imagination then did spring 
These bright mailed armaments of towers that 

sweep 
Their rugged radiance towards the sun ? Lo, now 
Did God disturb His placid hours of ease 
And wearying of His Heaven descend to build 
That monstrous chamber roofed with blood-red 

wings ? 
Did the Lord shape it ? Verily I think 



76 NIMROD 

He was not moved from off His sacred throne 
To come into the plain, and make for us 
A thatch amid the wilderness, or build 
Unto His sons a comfortable roof. 
When was it that He left the triumphing 
And being grieved for us in our distress 
Harnessed His meteor to the groaning rock 
And dragged it for us ? When, with blazing ax 
Of His sharp lightning did He split in twain 
Impregnable strong stone for us ? And when 
Did He make derricks of the desert blast, 
Or of His falling stars link mighty chains ? 
When ? When ? Nay then, I think He was not 

stirred 
To sweat with us when we did heave the stone. 
I have not seen Him when the sun was hot 
Upon the desert perish of slow thirst. 
Hath He smelted bronze in a furnace ? Hath Hebeen 
Scourged with the slaves ? For when the sun- 
baked clay 
Upon the plain was red with blood, I think 
It was the footprint of some starveling child 
That strove with a burden, but not ever yet 
Because Jehovah bled. Yet when He saw 
My great bright citadel, the Lord was wroth, 
And in the darkness spied upon my speech. 
Yes — seized upon my utterance ! His ears 



NIMROD 77 

Snatched up my words as the avenging eagle 
Bears up its prey. Yes — plunged on them through 

space 
And feeding on their fatness He grew wroth. 
For a great city shined upon my brain. 
And I did dream of vast and spheral halls, 
Broad, deep, high-arched, like Heaven's inverted 

dome. 
And I would build such towers as should search 
The countenance of the sun. And I would storm 
God's fortress with my great acropolis, 
And drive his frightened angels out, and thence, 
To do my bidding and to help me build 
Upon the earth a citadel more vast 5 
A precipice so high that I might leap 
Into sheer gulfs of Heaven ! Then, having plunged 
Through that abyss of brightness, I would scale 
Its secret ramparts, dare its highest wall, 
Triumph above its batteries, show my face 
With laughter on its pinnacles, then rush 
Into its central silence, and, from the Book 
Bring down to earth — against His will — God's 

Word. 
Therefore I would inscribe upon a stone, 
4 Great Nimrod ! ' 

For behold, upon the earth 
Am I not mighty? Am I not one who dreams 



78 NIMROD 

But when he wakens seeks not any man 
To speak with cunning counsel but with deeds 
Interprets his own dream? Am I not one 
Whose name is as a silver shawm blown loud? 
Am I not Nimrod?" 

And Bathsheba raised, 
Shining as does the terrible chrysoprase, 
Her pale and awful beauty from his breast 
And unto Nimrod said, "Lord, thou art He." 

Then Nimrod in his rage did spread abroad 
And in his violent robes gathered such wrath 
As hidden in dark clouds shall shake the sky. 
The thick locks on his head in anger reared 
And bristled as with sparks. His challenging eyes 
Swept the dark air with such velocities 
As when with onslaught fierce a thundering drove 
Of neighing steeds stampede the plain. His brow 
Was black with deep and swollen veins. His 

hands 
Were stretched aloft as if to snatch from Heaven 
God's thunderbolts. So Nimrod speechless stood, 
With such a silence as should scourge the air 
More fearfully than does the hurricane. 
So Nimrod stood; and Bathsheba, the Queen, 
Gazing upon his presence was appalled ; 
And casting down her beauty at his feet 



NIMROD 79 

Spread out the yellow harvest of her hair 

Upon the stone. Not like a woman now, 

But having seen an omen in mid air, 

A portent and a devastating doom, 

A part of groaning nature she fell down, 

Her broad and simple flanks like the white herds 

Submissive on the plain, her bones like rock, 

The sinew of the earth — like earth she lay, 

The dark, the elemental, the chastised — 

And waited for his wrath. And Nimrod spoke. 

" Break, break, ye clouds, and cast upon the earth 
Your progeny of fierce, angelic lights. 
Rage, rage, ye stars that never more should creep 
Like hounds about God's footstool. Heave, thou 

earth, 
And cast thy broth at Heaven. Ye mighty hills, 
Tremble I say, for sickness of His feet. 
Howl, thou meek air ! Thou earth, sky, sun, 

moon, wind, 
Ye forests, clouds ! Oh all ye visible things, 
Be purged of God. For I, that am a man, 
Having observed the ways of the Most High, 
Am utterly astonished. God was wroth. 
He was afraid because I sought to build 
A citadel so huge it should confound 
His High Archangels. So he drew a cloud 



80 NIMROD 

Of angry darkness round about his throne 

And restless amid rest he cast about, 

Eternal, jealous, how he should subdue 

Our mortal glory. Then the Lord came down, 

Invisible, in radiance panoplied. 

And when I saw His front, I was amazed. 

Then was He pleased. Then was His mind set up. 

Then did His countenance boast and in His heart 

Unto His watching hosts He cried — Ha ! Ha ! 

For He is one that having not ever sown 

Shall reap the harvest. And He was consumed, 

When He beheld great Babel, as with fire 

Is the dry flax. Then did He smoke with rage, 

And in His dark and monstrous heart decreed 

That those who sweat, who bled, who died, should 

cry 
To Him, enthroned in the eternal ease, 
1 Behold, God did it ! ' And He said to me, 
' Lo, now thou art confounded and cast down. 
Go thou into the chamber and on the stone 
Write thou Jehovah's name/ " . . . . 

Then Bathsheba 
Arose before him and upon him shone 
Her pale and awful beauty. Her large eyes 
Cast darkness forth upon the air and filled it 
With premonition of a doom august. 
And she spoke to him as the Sovereign Night 



NIMROD 8 1 

Utters forth stars that shape the destinies 
Of other worlds. 

" Lo, who shall war with God ? 
Hast thou such spears as those that from the sky 
Cleave earth straight through ? Hast thou a war 

horse shod 
With flame ? Whose mane is thunder ? Canst 

thou shake 
The stars with murmuring ? Or by thy nod 
Confound great waters ? Canst thou do this ? My 

Lord, 
Thou art vainglorious. Think upon the flood. 
Remember Adam. For upon my dreams 
Such awful portents ride as meteors 
Astride the blast. I see ! — I see ! — I see ! — 
And there is doom upon the land and wailing, 
And direful confusion ! Make peace with God. 
Else where this citadel is reared to-day, 
To-morrow wolves shall haunt and hooting owls 
Shall lodge them in the ruin. Then thou, cast out, 
Shalt stretch thy hands into a windy air 
And cry c Lord, Lord ! ' upon an empty plain. 
Go thou, and on the brightly polished stone 
Write thy Lord's name." . . . 

Then Nimrod went from her. 
He passed beyond the brazen door and stood 



82 NIMROD 

Upon a massive landing flanked with stone, 
Bright paved with various-colored stone and arched 
With moon-white marble, hushed with many a 

shape 
Of pale and dancing creatures carved in light ; 
Blossoms and garlands ; wild and starry forms 
That ran soft-footed through the tender stone; 
Deep fruitage, shadowy grapes, apples of snow, 
White shining pears, pomegranates richly pale; 
Dim hands and silver flagons — and anon, 
Blushing with sweetness, all the soft white stone 
Smiled like a rose, where vaguely seen as though 
From some profound and spiritual air 
Their fair immortal shapes had melted through, 
With laughing eyes, with soft and cloudy hair, 
Angelic faces smiled and dimly shone. 
The portal was blood red and it was carved 
With haloes of fierce angels, burnished bright 
With glowing ribs of deeply crudded wings. 
And on the left a brazen cherub stood 
With locks outspread. His pinions were blood red. 
His breast was alabaster and his eyes 
Of topaz, flaming fearfully. In his hand 
He poised a jewelled spear before the Lord. 
And on the right a brazen cherub stood 
With locks outspread. His pinions were blood red. 
His breast was alabaster and his eyes 



NIMROD 83 

Of topaz, flaming fearfully. In his hand 

He poised a jewelled spear before the Lord. 

'Twixt massive balustrades of thick carved gold 

Downward there swept a huge Olympian stair 

Of grave, celestial whiteness like the moon. 

It swelled abroad, calm, beautiful, and bland. 

Descending into beauty yet more vast, 

It moved as some white-bosomed awful god 

Slowly matures his shape upon the air. 

So with large curves it did embody space. 

With godlike love embracing emptiness, 

In austere nuptials it sank down in bliss. 

For lo, there swelled upon the mortal sight 

A vast, a spheral chamber, as did seem 

The breeding place of immortality. 

Young angels here might lay a soothing hand 

On space made infinite and grieved time 

Become eternal. Here such calm was spread 

As doth inhabit greatness. The rich air 

Conceived such splendors as appeared to sweep 

Like divine blazing eagles the huge roof. 

From column unto column space swept on, 

Breathing, enraptured, god-like and austere — 

Music made visible. And Nimrod gazed. 

And when he saw, globed forth beneath that dome, 

All human beauty sphered before his eyes, 

Even like mortality shrined in one tear ; 



84 NIMROD 

When he bethought him how upon a night 

He with imagination was consumed ; 

Yes, even he that haunted with the wolves 

Among the rocks, naked upon the plain, 

Was seized with such great awfulness of dream 

As blows mortality from off" our souls 

And leaves them to a high and god-like doom ; 

And how — even upon him, the warrior chief — 

There swept upon his spirit, burning, bright, 

The knowledge of that chamber — beautiful ; 

Then he stretched out his arms upon the air 

And stood as one astonished. For behold, 

Spread like a glassy sea the radiant floor 

Was smoothed in golden pools of deep delight. 

The blazing walls of fierce and polished brass 

Were bright as bosoms of the cherubim, 

And angel-shaped strong columns lifted up 

A solemn dome of arched and blood-red wings. 

Then Nimrod moved along the placid floor 

Till, in the center of its vastness, set 

Upon a pedestal of blackened bronze, 

He came upon a huge and polished stone 

Like the shield of a great angel. On each side 

Two dreadful cherubim in brass did flame 

And their bright swords were crossed above to bid 

The Powers of Heaven hide before a name 

Soon to be graved forever upon stone. 



NIMROD 85 

And Nimrod looked about him and he saw 
The dim and dove-like smoke of incense, rising, 
Float palely in the air before the shrine. 
And he beheld the fiery spread wings 
Of those four blazing cherubim, and read 
Upon the pedestal of bronze, strange script, 
That being translated cried, " Angels, Archangels, 
Ye generations of men ; hereon is writ 
The name of him who built great Babel. Lo — 
He is our stronghold. In the wilderness 
Our sweet well water gushing from a stone, 
Our sword, our buckler, and our blazing shield, 
Our rose in a fair garden." . . . 

And behold, 
That radiant chamber rushed upon his soul 
Like a great host of angels and he spread 
His gaze about him. And when Nimrod saw 
How empty was the broad and blazing space, 
And how no eye disturbed the air, he turned — 
And on the polished stone wrote his own name. 

PART IV 

Then did the powers of the air breed forth 
Sight in no mortal shape involved that flew 
Furious as eagles blazing in mid noon — 
And snatching Heavenward that naked deed 



86 NIMROD 

Swept up its prey, screaming, into the sun. 
Then was there heard upon steep slopes of air, 
Like fearful rushings of invisible steeds, 
The trampling of innumerable eyes, 
That mounted up to God, angry, amazed, 
Terrific, smoking, furious and appalled, 
By earth affrighted. But when around the Throne 
Vast multitudes of angels robed in wrath, 
Displeased and splendid, gazed into God's face, 
The Lord looked down upon great Nimrod's deed 
And seated in large silence, pitied him. 
Then from His breast a blazing angel came 
And looking down upon the earth he cried, 
" Oh blind, oh fatuous, knowing not thyself! 
For I that am in God am thine own soul, 
Thine own deep Self — unutterably real. 
But thou wouldst build thy towers and threaten us 
And snatch from out the Book His secret Word. 
Yet — at thy voice — I will come down to earth, 
And I will sphere before thy mortal sight 
His midmost Truth, God's utterance crystal clear, 
Shape of angelic substance that contains 
The stars of destinies, astrologies, 
Prophecies, histories, retributions, spells, 
Births, crucifixions, resurrections, dooms, 
And God's own heart that ever burns therein, 
Made visible. Lo then, thine eyes shall see ! 



NIMROD 87 

And thou shalt know how through thy walls are 

stretched 
High Heaven's bastions ; how angels' mighty feet 
Tread deep thy strong foundations and their great 

arms 
Uplift thy arches ; how their heavenly breath 
Bears up thy highest turrets, and how thy domes 
Are symbols of their passing. Gazing on me, 
Made wise with Truth, thou shalt grow glorious. 
And I will shine through thee as does the flame 
In sacred vessels — burning before the Lord. 
A Prophet and a Saviour thou shalt be. 
And thy great citadel shall open lie 
To bright celestial guests and thou shalt walk 
Among our sacred and dark groves ; but if 
I do not please thee, smite me with thy sword, 
And I will leave thee and to Heaven return." 

Then, from His inmost bosom, God sent down 
That angel unto Nimrod. And the King, 
In Babel, made to Bathsheba a feast. 
For he had marshalled hosts of armored men 
In that great hall; and when Bathsheba moved 
In silent radiance down the snow-white stair 
There swept among them a vast murmuring 
And a low roaring as of ardent flame. 
Behold, she walked among them, and her feet 



88 NIMROD 

Were bound in golden sandals. The robe she wore 
Was scarlet ; and her face was pale. She came. 
Then those that gazed upon her, being abashed, 
Could lift their eyes no longer. But she moved 
As does the sunset on an empty plain. 
Beautiful and alone she walked unseen. 
Only great Nimrod's eyes were not made blind, 
But he observed the pageant of her face. 
His shaggy warriors, bright as burning trees, 
Blazed like deep forests all on fire, and lit 
With smouldering helmet and with flaming shield 
The air with conflagration ; but their eyes 
Fell down like flaming leaves, while over them 
In the broad sky two eagles soared and met 
And, mated in mid air, fledged on the gale 
Great golden birds of love. So swiftly paired 
The eyes of mighty Nimrod and the Queen. 
Unwatched, unseen, amid vast multitudes, 
She melted in his arms and on his breast 
Laid down the awful splendor of her face. 

And Nimrod saw the Angel, and his brow 
Was pale, translucent ; and a garb of light 
Concealed the burning softness of his shape; 
And he was mild and glorious and his eyes 
In deep obedience smiled and as he shone, 
Immortal doves were bred out of his sight — 



NIMROD 89 

And flew among the thousand columns of gold. 
Like some strong diver he plunged down through 

light, 
Through gulfs of quiet and eternal seas 
Of such delight his bosom swelled with bliss, 
And his large pantings shook the silvered deep. 
With heaving sides he swam beneath the flood 
And drenched with beauty floated into sight. 
So Nimrod gazed upon him and he saw 
Such rich benevolence as warmed the air 
Like a celestial orchard deep with fruit 
Of milky substance, bounteous and mild. 
And the translucent brightness of his limbs 
Was all inscribed with prophecies and dooms, 
With retributions, ecstasies and dreams. 
How starry was his substance, and his shape 
How chastened unto beauty! How austere! 
For he was lovelier than the Milky Way; 
More ancient than the moon; more white than 

stars ; 
And glories, dying from some fairer clime, 
Did palely swim along his silent smile 
Like great white singing swans. And Nimrod knew 
His own deep self, unutterably real. 
And in his hand he held an awful sphere, 
A monstrous globule shaped like the full moon, 
A dreadful brightness, stranger than a star. 



9 o NIMROD 

Eternal, beautiful, orbed in golden light, 

A vessel of pure fire it flamed serene, 

More fearful than clear water when 'tis still. 

Eternal beaut y solved into one tear — 

It laid a shape upon unshapen air, 

And, as the radiant moon reveals the sun, 

Held up to mortal vision the unseen. 

And Nimrod saw it and he cried aloud. 

And from his limbs, as out of gnarled trees, 

Slow heavy drops exuded; and his sweat 

Dropped from him like thick amber and he fixed 

Upon that spirit astonished, staring eyes — 

And cried unto the angel, " It is the Word." 

For lo, made visible to mortal sight, 

Strange mingled colors swam upon its shape. 

Like skies at noon its pure angelic substance 

Contained all stars and they engendered forth 

Prophecies, histories, high astrologies, 

Falls, crucifixions, resurrections, dooms, 

Portents and charms; bright times, like ripened 

fruit, 
Fell from its surface; seas and shifting lands 
Were hurried from its face; vast nations rushed 
And circling round it in mad hurricanes 
Chastened its limpid stillness. Then, all gone, 
Closed in its central sweetness, sphered in calm, 
Blushed the perpetual smile of God. 



NIMROD 91 

Then spoke 
That Angel unto Nimrod and he said, 
" See in my hand God's awful Hieroglyph. 
This is His secret Utterance, the Word 
Which thou dost seek, in prayers that thou hast 

shaped 
And raised to Heaven in thy domes august, 
Thy soaring towers and thy spires that dream. 
Take it from me. I am thy Spirit's Truth, 
And we are one another, and from thee 
Shall future times beget me. Thou shalt grow 
Mild, ancient, and at ease, eternal, wise. 
A prophet and a saviour — thou shalt be. 
And thy great citadels shall open lie 
To bright celestial guests and thou shalt walk 
At will among our sacred and dark groves — 
And thou and all thy sons shall be as kings. 
Stretch out thy hand. Lay hold upon God's Word." 
And Nimrod gazed upon that Utterance. 
And from it streamed such splendor as lit up 
Bathsheba's face, inclined on Nimrod's breast. 
And they perceived the galleries of the hall 
Uplifted on the shoulders of archangels 
And how amid the thick and blackened bronze 
Was spread their hair and how their powerful 

shoulders 
Supported Nimrod's bulwarks and their breath 



92 NIMROD 

Blew forth round domes like bubbles and their eyes 
Bred out of earth his battlements, as the sun 
Bids forests into growth j and they beheld 
Strong Gravitations that with gigantic knees 
Forced down his bastions while ethereal hands 
Lifted his pinnacles ; and they perceived 
That through the ramparts of that mighty town 
Were stretched sweet angels' wings and how mild 

eyes 
Gazed at them from the stones and the great arches 
Were lifted on the backs of angels, bent 
To lift that joyous burden ; and bright feet 
Were spread amid the rock and rushing raiment 
Of splendid spirits roared along the stone 
For Nimrod when he built. And they perceived 
How Cherubim had beckoned, and behold, 
The city had grown upward ; winged steeds 
Were chained to drag the stones and forms unseen 
Had built among the laborers on the plain. 
And she remembered what God said to Nimrod, 
And looking on the polished stone that stood 
Between great brazen angels, she saw it hid 
In purple cloth. Then Bathsheba drew down 
Great Nimrod's face unto her own and said, 
" Son of Almighty God — what hast thou done ? 
Tell me, great Nimrod, hast thou kept His word ? 
For I remember how I bade thee go 



NIMROD 93 

And write upon the stone, even as He said. 
And if thou didst not do it — never more 
Can I in solace lean upon thy breast. 
No more can I learn from thine eyes, or say 
Unto my soul, ' This man shall lead thee forth 
And marshal thee to God ' — But I in grief 
Would cloud my presence even to thy face. 
Tell me, what didst thou write upon the stone ? 
Oh — ere I come to thee again — I say 
Was it God's name ? " 

And Nimrod turned and saw 
That burning shape, bright as the breast of God, 
Gaze at him from the air and unto him 
That Utterance spoke. " What has thy soul con- 
ceived ? 
What thought has taken thee ? Oh, in thy heart 
What strange imagination has sprung forth ? 
What speech is this that thou reflectest on ? 
If thou dost speak it, thou shalt be accursed. 
Tell her what thou hast done, else with thy hand 
Cast down the Word of God." . . . 

And Nimrod turned. 
And gazing on Bathsheba he beheld 
The pale and awful beauty of her face. 
Then he cast down God's Word before her feet, 
And said, " Upon the stone I wrote God's name." 



94 



NIMROD 



PART V 



That night the angels in their citadels, 
The great mild-eyed, whose snow-white innocence 
Was soft upon them and like plumage deep, 
Moved forth for pleasure and their gliding step 
Peacefully on the radiant pavement shone. 
Their silvery feet like doves beneath the sun 
With tender pacing bred ethereal sound 
Which in the melodious substance of the stone 
Throbbed with the pulse of many an echoing tone, 
As in the sunlight sweetly sunken moons. 
Some walked in the warm gardens where they ate 
A placid fruit, milk white, whereof the taste 
Increased in them their wisdom. With delight 
Some camped beneath the trees and in deep groves 
Played secret lovely games that left the air 
More innocent with mirth. Some from the lips 
Of Awes and Terrors and Powers and Blazing 

Thrones 
Learned that which passeth speech. Some stretched 

through space 
Gigantic limbs or plunged into the void 
To try their strength with nothingness, and some, 
Through gazing upon beauty having grown 
Miraculously quiet, wrapt in calm 
Received the silent ecstasy of sleep. 



NIMROD 95 

Some, wardens of the barricades, high up 
Upon the ramparts of God's citadel, 
Gazed from the parapets and saw how smooth 
The plains of pure and undisturbed bright thought 
In shining levels lay 'twixt them and man. 
But as they gazed upon the eternal ways, 
Lo, Heaven itself was shaken. Then mid air 
Was split asunder. Then was the void struck deep 
With blackened precipices and stern cliffs. 
Then space was made astonished and was rent. 
Then dreadful whirlpools of dark, thundering time 
Swept forth their reeling floods. From jagged steeps 
Plunged shrieking shapes of stars on fire. Then 

thought, 
That once had stretched a lucid interval 
'Twixt God and man, convulsed with darkness, 

broke 
In fearful chasms, gorges of despair, 
Fathomless seas, sharp-peaked and distant heights, 
Sheer walls of distance, deep and echoing flumes, 
Untrodden plains and jungles of dark air, 
Where fierce monstrosity and brutish rage 
Devoured each other. With anguished meteors 

pained, 
Eternal hurricanes of grief disturbed 
The deep arboreal forests of black night. 
Then struggling up the dark abyss they saw 



96 NIMROD 

An urgent spirit whose white angelic shape 
Was poised for an instant on the cliff 
Of utter darkness, like the morning star; 
Then plunged again into the black ravine; 
Then forth once more; then, fearfully obscured, 
Rushed up through trackless distances, pursued 
By howling furies; then followed the harsh trail 
Which skirted the high citadel; then leaped 
Across the blazing bulwarks, up the heights. 
So swept among them, of his splendors stripped, 
Great Nimrod's angel ! Anguished, bleeding, 

bright, 
Exhausted, beautiful, aggrieved, appalled, 
He beat the air with large astonished eyes. 
Then, like a steed gone frantic, forward plunged, 
And like one burning cast himself abroad. 
Pale with celestial anguish his body shone 
Like the white spirit of eternal flame, 
While wildly throbbing on the angelic stone 
Spread the crushed splendor of his beaten wings. 
Then once again he reared himself and stood 
Enraged and potent with a blazing front 
And cried with such a voice as shook the air — 
" What has been done on earth ? What has been 

thought ? 
What dreamed of? What conceived ? How shall 

I speak, 



NIMROD 97 

That come as witness to you from that orb 
Which is man's habitation! With what voice 
Shall I cast knowledge, howling, through these 

streets ? 
Shall I confound your presence ? With my speech 
Shall I your bleeding brightness so afflict, 
Your bodies shall melt forth in tears ? Oh ye ! 
Ye Spirits, that dispersed upon the air 
Feel Nature trembling ; Angels, that so close 
Are driven to one another by the gales 
Of earthly devastation, ye surge like seas 
Of troubled radiance; ye august Archangels, 
That lift complacent, towering in the sun, 
Your glacier beauty of precipitous wings; 
Oh ye almighty Thrones whose blazing eyes 
Breed forth astonishments, dominions, powers ; 
Ye principalities that in the air, 
Fearfully spread in conflagration bright, 
Consume the darkness of the void ; Ye Wars 
Beautiful, shaggy, bristling, circumstanced, 
That ride with thunder and with cohorts vast 
March forth with Dominations ; Oh, all ye Times, 
Ye fearful Times, ye Half Times ! on this day 
I say man has accomplished a strange thing, 
And on God's altar there smokes up to Heaven 
The savor of unnatural deeds. For when 
At dawn, in Eden, underneath the trees, 



98 NIMROD 

Eve, slumbering at peace in Adam's arms, 
Enraptured, docile, in her sleep conceived 
A dark monstrosity — direful, new — 
Man's disobedience; when fatuous Cain 
Gazing into his brother's living eyes, 
With hate ecstatic, first conceived of death ; 
Or when before the flood the sons of men 
Whored fearfully and of adulterous flesh 
Bred frightful progeny ; I say that then 
There was a speech in Heaven and it declared 
Man's dark inventions to the stars. But now 
What word shall shape before you this new thing ? 
For never yet has man, who fashioneth 
Great cities and great progenies of dust, 
Created a new virtue ; but his wit 
Conceives unnatural monsters of misdeed 
And fierce original crime. I came to him 
Through skies of lovely thought. Oh, like a star 
Singing athwart the dawn, I swept the air 
Of his clean spirit, morning fresh. I came, 
Beautiful, wrapped in light, beyond all dreaming. 
What he had not imagined, I shone on him, 
His own deep Self unutterably real. 
And in my raiment were his secret dawns. 
Pale was my substance with the spiritual stars 
That were the fires of his ancient prayers. 
My body poised in the air did sing 



NIMROD 99 

Like silvery strings with music, and he gazed, 

And knew how beautiful I was and saw 

His own deep Self, unutterably real, 

But in his heart preferred an alien thing. 

Oh, can ye in this citadel conceive 

What Nimrod plotted ? How shall I make plain 

Without vast ruin blackening these halls 

His spirit's dark achievement ! For he wrought 

A harsh invention and a blind machine, 

And from his lips there sped an iron word — 

A direful engine that did bring to waste 

The gardens of his being. Then on his brain 

Seized black negation. With a staring eye, 

His thought regarded emptiness. He groaned. 

Then he stretched forth a groping hand upon 

Annihilation, and swart nothingness 

He drew about him with its ancient chill. 

I saw his senses swim, dizzy as clouds 

Dispersed upon the ethers of his soul. 

Then did his mortal presence ail. His flesh 

Melted upon his bone. His eyelids pale 

Were cold and sweated heavily. His eyes 

Started and were astonished. In his breast 

He felt protesting nature with huge throes 

Endeavor to escape and leave him strewn, 

By all the elements cast out. Aghast, 

His snow-white flesh was shaken like a city 



ioo NIMROD 

That cracks upon the gale ready to fall. 
And from his deep disease such vapor smoked 
As if a fire in the groins or breast 
Were prophesying ruin. Not like a man 
Turned Nimrod unto me, but some wild shape 
Reared of disaster, built of empty ash. 
So sorrowed he before me and with tears 
Large in his godlike eyes, he gazed at me — 
His spirit's Truth — and groaning heavily, 
With devastation shaking his huge frame, 
He spoke forth monstrous syllables and cried 
What was not true before the Lord ; then cast 
The Word of God upon the barren stone, 
And from great Nimrod's lips emerged pale death." 
Then was the silence of that listening host 
Congealed, as when beneath the Northern blast 
Deep solemn pools their quietness increase. 
And stillness lay among their glittering spears 
Like snow in a deep forest. But once more 
That Angel lifted up his voice and spoke. 
" Lo then, I waned from out his mortal sight 
And sank myself into the golden air 
That was his spirit — wherefrom I had dawned, 
His own deep Self unutterably real. 
But oh, that world of thought not any more 
Lay pure, transparent like a shining sky, 
Betwixt his world and ours. It had grown dark, 



NIMROD 101 

And on his soul's horizon many shapes 
Foreboded tempest. Then was split in twain 
His spiritual earth. Dark gulfs of thought 
Swallowed up his peaks of radiance. Hideous 

forests 
Besieged his intellect with shaggy growth 
Wherein roved many a wandering, livid beast 
Of rage and hatred. In the evil air 
Were floating idiocies and blank despairs, 
Insanities and disembodied palsies, 
Fright, and such leprosies as in the waste 
Of his soul's desert howled among the tombs 
Or at the town's gate, smelling out the feast, 
Entered the helpless citadel of flesh. 
Through these I rushed and from my substance 

waned 
The beauty of his spiritual stars, 
Until the fires of his ancient prayers 
Seemed almost out. Then did I set my face 
Against the whirlwinds of his deep despair, 
His rage, his privy council, his muttering, 
His peeping spirits perched upon the gale. 
I rode on Revolutions and I leaped 
From mammoth time to mammoth time. I clung 
To gorgeous wheels of cycles and was whirled 

forth 
From them into mid air. I sat astride 



102 NIMROD 

Event and guided it. Over vast plains 

I drove his chariots of change ! Look ! Look ! 

Am I not wounded ? Am I not aghast ? 

For I have ridden on his soul's eclipse 

Unto the uttermost reaches of man's thought. 

A thousand centuries lie beneath my feet — 

His own deep Self, unutterably real." 

Then to the bulwarks that great angel leaped 

And gazing down into the nether air 

Lit up the darkness with his blazing eyes. 

With arms outstretched and with exalted brow, 

He cried, " Lo now ! Upon this town shall fall 

An ending and a devastating doom ! 

For in its streets and mighty citadel 

Truth reigns no more. Wherefore no more shall 

Truth 
Be its chief servant. Ye doers of foul deeds ! 
Manipulators I Hiders ! Plotters of schemes ! 
Runners on dark errands ! Creepers on unshod 

feet! 
Oh ye that dwell in Babel, breeders of lies ! 
Have ye not heard of that unholy spawn 
That eateth its progenitors ? Lo, now ! 
Soon shall ye be devoured. Never more 
Shall God's high angels lift your mighty walls 
In their serene great hands. Not any more 
Shall they upon their shoulders heave your domes! 



NIMROD 103 

Ye are forsaken utterly. Shake ! Shake ! 
Ye mighty citadels ! Ye are not built 
Upon a real foundation. Ye shall sink 
Amid soft brass and sickly dreaming stone. 
Fall, ye high towers ! Oh all ye constellations 
Of domes resplendent, like a thousand moons, 
Ye are eclipsed forever. Ye bright walls, 
Whose rugged armaments drive against God's 

hosts, 
Mailed in magnificence, ye shall be as dust. 
Oh thou great Babel — out of nothing reared — 
Shake ! Crumble utterly ! Be thou dismayed ! 
For God is wroth upon you and to Him 
Thy citadel is as a voice at night — 
Thy brazen bastions built of empty wind. 
Thou art abolished fearfully. His feet 
Are darkly spread among you. Ye shall go 
Afflicted and confounded. Ye shall rage 
In scattered tribes. God's strong and awful wars 
He will send down upon you. And no man 
Shall to his brother lift a cry of peace. 
Words shall be taken from you. On your lips 
Your utterance shall be confused. Your breath 
Shall sicken in your nostrils and send forth 
A stench upon this land. With wailing voices 
Ye shall breed forth new words and every one 
Like old death-bearing Cain shall breathe out death. 



104 NIMROD 

Your tribe henceforth shall speak a various tongue, 
And there shall be a curse upon your speech." 

Then from that stellar orb that is the earth, 
Rose such a lamentation that it vexed 
The listening brightness of the zodiac. 
And many a star fell from the sky that night 
With mortal grief afflicted. Meteor-eyed, 
Eternity watched a new epoch dawn 
Upon that furious planet set in time. 
Then in high heaven all the angelic host, 
Beating about God's ramparts like a tide, 
Swelled terrible with glory, and the eyes 
Of no Archangel could range forth so far 
As to declare the end of that vast sea. 
But bright with billowy radiance they heaved 
Their rugged splendor underneath the sun 
And surged against the battlements. For, lo! 
There shot among them fires that were such 

thoughts 
As never more should blaze upon the earth, 
Whose terrible radiance was the garb of speech. 
Breathed in by Heaven, swept back God's beau- 
teous words 
To the eternal peace from which they came. 
Burning, they plunged into the Angel's hands. 
They sunk their glowing shapes into his brain. 



NIMROD 105 

They shouted in his thighs, and in his feet 
Raised paeans of delight until he leaped 
Before the Lord with prophecy enraged. 
They foamed upon his brow. They swam serene 
Through the translucent whiteness of his breast. 
Amid his spiritual substance, fires shone 
With moving splendor and interior flame. 
They made soft music in his throbbing plumes 
And on his finger tips did sweetly sing. 
But never more on earth those orbs of light 
Choired truth along the orbits of man's brain. 
And with them rushed swart algebras, disturbed 
From their deep lairs of stone ; and numbers swept 
Their wings from earth until material things 
Groaned, crumbled, were no more. Swift accu- 
racies, 
Smooth-limbed and beautiful with flying feet, 
Fled from their bright abodes of tower and wall 
And, poised in high air, looked down amazed 
To see huge towers stricken by their flight ; 
Lines, whirled about the heavenly ramparts, swung 
From ancient straightness into anguished shapes 
They had not dreamed of, arcs, and angles strange, 
And terrible spirals. Many a tortured curve, 
Unwoven from arch and dome, was stretched in 

pangs 
Of pained and frigid straightness. High in air 



106 NIMROD 

Moved mournful, calm and stern geometries — 
Pale priests of space — that from their ancient 

hands 
Loosed the old order and, at God's altars bowed, 
Laid down their sacrifice of beauty. Then 
A murmur rose among the radiant ones, 
And they grew turbulent in Heaven, for lo, 
The angel had gone down. His terrible wings, 
That with bright comets bristled as with eyes, 
Did shake the atmosphere like living wars. 
Blown through his hair were strong bright meteors 
Consuming as with flame. His thundering feet 
Ploughed up the earth till fearfully she rocked 
And groaned as chaos did of old. His eyes 
Blazed like volcanoes from pale peaks of air 
And prophesied destruction. His screaming voice 
Perched like an eagle on white cliffs of the sky 
And snatched earth's vision Heavenward. His brow 
Passed judgment on the universe. His robes 
With conflagration burned the gale. Oh then 
There was a cry in Heaven, for all the host 
Of bright magnificence, with thundering voice, 
Shouted abroad in Heaven, " Great Babel Falls." 
Then that bright sea of plunging radiance 
Ebbed back to silence and eternal calm. 



NIMROD 107 



PART VI 



Three days, above the plain, the setting sun 
Moved over Babel ; and its thousand courts, 
Ruined beneath the sky, lay silently 
Like pools of blood. Its devastated domes 
Shone forth no more but blackened on the ground, 
Rent into shapes gigantic. Its vast walls, 
Spread fearfully, lay swart upon the sand, 
Cleft in deep chasms, gorges of dark bronze, 
Black, wind-swept cliff and brassy precipice. 
Its towers had ceased like thunder. Its temples 

huge, 
Convulsed in mammoth shapes, crouched on the 

plain 
Like anguished gods — doomed and forever dumb. 
For, with its spirits gone, what tongue can tell 
The speechless agony of aching bronze, 
The groanings and convulsions of strong stone. 
Bed rock was heaved from earth. From dungeons 

deep 
Emerged pale waters that, in mighty halls, 
Spread glassy lakes beneath the shattered domes. 
It seemed eternal ruin. No voice broke 
That death-like stillness and not any man 
Looked forth to query where his home had been. 



io8 NIMROD 

But the gaunt wolf skulked slant-eyed from the 

plain, 
And when the sun was set the jackal whined 
Down empty echoing corridors of stone. 
Under the roofless pillars the night owl 
Flew among ruined arches and the wind 
Sighed through disconsolate forests of black 

bronze. 
But when upon the third night the full moon 
Shone on the plain, a dark and awful shape 
Loomed forth upon the rock and spread abroad 
Its shadow in the waste. For a long time 
It crouched, squat in the sand, nor moved at all, 
But its huge bulk was like a bowlder cast 
In the eternal idiocy of stone. 
At length that sombre entity did move, 
And with colossal labor without sound 
Heaved up its groaning ruins ; and the moon 
Revealed the shaken semblance of a man. 
With vague spread feet, gnarled knees and shaggy 

sides, 
With bulging eyes and large, astonished face, 
With matted locks of horror-whitened hair, 
Gigantic in the waste he towered alone, 
That once in Babel was a mighty King. 
He stared abroad, as if a diver, lost 
Beneath deep waters, gazed on a sunken town. 



NIMROD 109 

Then with a vacuous eye he seemed to search 
As for a thing forgotten — that being found 
He would remember it. And he moved on, 
Desolate in the silence — and he saw 
Unearthly crawling monsters of slow stone, 
And buried in a sea of livid light 
Black on the sand, unutterable shapes. 
Through ruined vaults and roofless corridors 
He moved with stealthy step. Sometimes he 

came 
To empty chambers open to the sky 
Whose lone inhabitant was the windy owl 
Wheeling his ghostly shadow to and fro 
With melancholy hooting. Much amazed 
At these unearthly ruins he moved on, 
Turning his steps along a corridor 
That promised him the end he sought and seemed 
As when along an insane countenance 
A look of recognition strangely creeps. 
But at the end it led him to a place 
Made imbecile with ruin — where not one thing 
Preserved its ancient contour. Sometimes he beat 
Against a barricade of rock or rushed 
Like one gone frantic to some parapet 
Or from a ruined casement stared far off 
Upon a sea of moonlit waste. At last, 
Not knowing where he went, he turned his steps 



no NIMROD 

Among the ruins of that mighty hall 
Where once great Babel held her festival, 
And his bright warriors, shaggy as burning trees, 
Blazed forth like conflagration. Nimrod strode 
Under the sky and on that ruin gazed. 
For lo — those walls, graven with mighty shapes 
Beautiful, old, occult, were spread abroad 
In gorgeous devastation. And he gazed 
On awful effigies of sculptured bronze. 
Cast from their habitations they appeared 
With frigid gestures to forbid or warn. 
Carved out of purple marble, slit-eyed, straight- 
lipped, 
With gold set in their nostrils and their mouths, 
With hands upon their knees, about to speak, 
Yet dumb forever, stared swart images. 
Hewn out of uncouth rock, old sacred beasts, 
Elephants, lions, monsters terrible, 
Dragons and birds that flew before the flood 
With scaly wings of brass, grotesquely shaped, 
Stared at him from those devastated walls, 
Shaken with thunder each one from his niche 
Of lawful meaning. As if the shining beasts 
That rage with love and splendor about God's 

throne, 
Beneath His hand unutterably good, 
Being cast to earth returned to natural wrath 



NIMROD 1 1 1 

And whined or whinnied, bellowed, roared or 

screamed, 
Each after his own kind, desiring flesh ; 
So these immortal symbols, fallen from grace, 
Unspiritual, brutish, uttered death. 
Monsters of twisted bronze, griffin or sphinx, 
Strange mythologic beasts no eye had seen, 
Beneath the moon, in effigies of hate, 
That once in ordered harmony had choired 
With golden mouths a psalmody of love, 
Stared at him as he moved and with mad lips 
Cried dissolute meanings that were not the truth. 
Then his flesh cowered before old hieroglyphs 
Of chronicles forgotten — gods asleep — 
That muttered forth sad dreams and vaguely spoke 
Into his soul, dark, unimagined crime 
And uncreated horror. Letters strange 
Leered at him wildly and with insane eyes 
Told tales abominable of an earth 
They saw not well. But some were chastely made, 
More lovely than the white and ancient moon ; 
But like the moon they ever turned away 
An occult fire from the eyes of man. 
Others of more intelligible shape 
Seemed beautiful to him — but oh, how dumb, 
Like mouths of speechless angels — lost syllables, 
That had no meaning for him, yet did seem 



ii2 NIMROD 

To have that in them which should ease his grief 
If his soul's eyes could read their outlawed script. 
Adamic spellings, palely glimmering runes, 
And broken shapes of ancient alphabets ! 
He seemed like one who argued with the speech 
Of furious madmen — for upon the night 
They worked such images as with fearful shapes 
Floated upon the air in horrors pale. 
Insanities, that in the shadowy wind 
Beat round his face like harpies and befouled 
His spirit's sustenance! Contagious fear 
Begot abomination where it was not, 
And having sickened all things, on his soul 
Cast off its trembling and diseased sweat. 
Murder sat throned on emptiness, and hate 
Was soured in the air's stomach till it spat 
A living venom around Nimrod's feet. 
Wrath shook his marrow. Floating idiocies, 
Like watery jellies in voluptuous shapes, 
Swam through his brain ; and disembodied lust 
Fearfully drifted towards his dreamy flesh. 
Then panic seized him and on his body cast 
Disintegration, till what time should do 
By terror was accomplished. Palsy shook 
The virtue from his bone. His flesh distilled 
In unseen waters. He stretched forth withering 
arms. 



NIMROD 113 

With vacuous eyes, with horror-whitened hair, 

He might have lived innumerable years. 

Awful he stood, unutterably old. 

But as he groped for some remembered sight, 

His tranced eyes grew suddenly awake. 

He came upon a crumbling arch, carved deep 

With cunning skill and devious workmanship. 

Beneath its shadowy arches, beating thick, 

Bats throbbed athwart the darkness with shrill 

cries 
Or in warm dusky garlands hung festooned. 
Then gazing underneath that arch, he saw 
A ruined marble stair, monstrous, snow white; 
Upon the left, over the sunken steps, 
A roaring torrent ; shattered on the right 
Huge fragments of a golden balustrade, 
Wherefrom hung shining coils of mighty snakes ; 
And at the top a barred and brazen door. 
Then Nimrod groaned. And plunging up be- 
sieged 
With breast and hands that portal. It was carved 
With haloes of bright angels and burnished red 
With glowing ribs of deeply crudded wings. 
And on the left a brazen cherub stood 
With wings outspread. His pinions were blood 

red, 
His breast of alabaster and his eyes 



ii 4 NIMROD 

Of topaz, flaming fearfully. In his hand 

He poised a jeweled spear before the Lord. 

And on the right a brazen cherub stood 

With wings outspread. His pinions were blood red, 

His breast of alabaster and his eyes 

Of topaz, flaming fearfully. In his hand 

He poised a jeweled spear before the Lord. 

Then Nimrod with huge clamor beat the door, 

With shouts and speech of anguish ; old great cries 

He had not yet forgotten ; Adamic prayers ; 

And prehistoric signals of the flesh 

When it was pure in Eden; tribal calls 

Of spirit unto spirit; ambrosial speech; 

Curses that Cain once taught unto his sons 

In his great city ; Paradisal words 

Ineffable to us, rich syllables 

That fed the soul, calm as angelic milk, 

With deep and immemorial tones of love. 

And lo, beneath his violence that door 

Groaned, yielded, gave, and fell, and its harsh 

sound 
Echoed through the reverberating halls. 
But Nimrod, gazing from a windy cliff, 
Beheld the floating clouds and the dark sky. 
Over a sunken ruin sailed the moon. 
Cast far below he saw Bathsheba's towers 
Flung forth in natural shapes, fantastic cliffs, 



NIMROD 115 

Caverns of bronze, or promontories steep ; 
And pale with ghostly splendor in their midst 
The polished silence of a smoothed lake, 
Until that night by no man ever seen, 
Paved with such bitter whiteness of the moon 
A brazen dragon well might dance thereon. 
Then Nimrod turned. But now not with huge cries 
He broke the stillness, but his glassy eyes 
Rolled forth on nothingness. Round his large face 
Floated vague locks of horror-whitened hair. 
Down that great marble stair he swept as if 
A temple fell and in the ruined hall, 
Gorgeous in devastation, groped among 
His monstrous images. Then suddenly, 
Shaken with palsy, with a staring eye, 
He pointed down among the shattered wings 
Of crumbled brazen angels, and plucked forth 
A slab of polished stone on which was writ 
A name of might. This, seizing in both hands, 
He raised high in the air, and on it shone 
In letters bright, a disobedient word — 
" Great Nimrod." Then he cast it in the dust 
And raised to Heaven a primeval cry. 
And at that cry dark shadows dimly stirred 
From obscure places, and as snuffing hounds 
Seek to the prey, vague human beings moved 
Among the shaken ruins and appeared 



n6 NIMROD 

From secret haunts where they in anguish hid. 
Slowly from vaults and echoing corridors 
They dolorously crept and were aghast 
Seeing him white with age ; and still they came 
And huddled round him. But speechless through 

the night 
Loomed the great King. Repulsed upon his lips 
His words did sit like dark-browed effigies 
In sculptured silence and he did not speak. 
About their sombre chief they studded the dark 
As when God's whisper spake into the sky 
A thousand planets. So there appeared in sight, 
In fearful resurrection, hosts of men. 
And Nimrod lifted up his voice and spoke. 
And from his lips his mighty arguments 
Did lock their shoulders like great struggling gods 
In the clear fierce arena of mid air. 
For he alone of all that lived in Babel 
Remembered the old God-like words nor yet 
Had lost from off his tongue that ancient speech. 
« Oh ! Oh ! Ye men of Babel ! Wherefore then 
Do ye stare round about with dog-like eyes 
That beg the sop of charity from me ? 
There was a man that once on Shinar's plain 
Built such a lordly city as not yet 
Had Heaven looked upon. ... I am not He. . . . 
Oh ! Oh ! Ye men of Babel ! Get ye hence, 



NIMROD 117 

Out of this ruined city to a strange land, 
And build new towns upon a distant plain. 
They said that Nimrod was a mighty man. 
His garments were like thunder. His head shone 
With fleeces of the sun, and his bright lips 
Flashed javelins of persuasion. . . . Where is 

He? . . . 
Oh ! Oh ! Ye men of Babel ! I say that God 
Is terrible on earth, and if our speech 
Shall make a stench in Heaven, we are cut off. 
Obey the Lord. ... I would ye had a king ! . . . 
But if ye love me, if ye have no fear 
Of mine affliction, lest I bring a curse 
Upon your tents and lest your women's milk 
Be dried from out their breasts because of me, 
Then place chains on my wrists ; and on my brow 
Write 4 slave,' and drive me with an iron scourge, 
Bearing your burdens like the patient beast, 
While ye shall wax like cedars in green plains. 
If ye would have me with you, cry to me ! 
But if ye fear me, silently depart." 
But they, with looks askance, heard Nimrod's 

speech, 
Not understanding his great ancient words. 
And, being full of wrath, thinking he said 
Unnatural, grievous things — with angry eyes 
And sullen aspect they silently moved away. 



n8 NIMROD 

That night they traveled forth upon the plain, 

Nor unto Nimrod did his sons return. 

But venerable Assher stayed with him, 

The ancient, the white-haired, and his true friend, 

That once had loved him for his bounteous youth. 

And when he saw how health had left the King 

And he had grown unutterably old, 

The tears fell from his eyes j and Nimrod said, 

"Lo now, thou art my only and true friend." 

But when he heard that speech, old Assher thought 

The King was mad and answered unto him, 

" How can I serve thee ? " Then was Nimrod's 

mind 
Bewildered utterly and he conceived 
That Assher hated him and with a cry 
Of wrath and anguish, lifted up his sword 
And smote him in the breast. And Assher fell, 
And the blood flowed. And Nimrod stared at him, 
Fearing lest curses crouched in hostile eyes 
Spring from their lair and slay him who had slain. 
But Assher, raising vaguely on his arm 
And breathing heavily, gazed up once more 
In Nimrod's angry eyes, and ere he died 
With a loud voice he cried an unknown word. 
Then was great Nimrod shaken grievously. 
And from the shadows moved a dreary shape 
And settled mournfully at Nimrod's feet, 



NIMROD 119 

Unnoticed. For from Nimrod's anguished lips 

Swept words like planets. Golden and full orbed 

They rode the silence as the throbbing stars 

Rehearse the centuries or foretell new days 

Or move through Heaven prophesying woe. 

" Spirit of truth ! Oh, how shall I make peace 

With thy enraged great nature ? I am one 

Who having bid his tribe unto the feast 

Pollutes the bread. Have mercy upon me. 

For lamentation seizes on my flesh 

And in my soul there is a deep disease. 

Ye purities that in the wind and rain 

Shall dredge the air of foulness — find out a way 

To cleanse me! Never! Never shall I be clean. 

Then cast me in the purging fires of Hell 

And in eternal flames let me be burned. 

Let me be damned. But oh, from out my soul 

Let this ripe sickness somehow be consumed. 

For if it were a horror of the flesh 

That had unseasoned me — how quickly then 

Might Nature work in me her ancient cure. 

Then she might rend my body off from me 

And cast its fevers in the air, and turn 

Its leprosies into the earth, and fling 

My spirit forth, a creature clean and bold. 

But this strikes deeper. When I die, my soul 

Shall howl outside the citadel of God, 



no NIMROD 

And with rent garments cry 'Unclean ! Unclean ! ' 

Thou happy flesh, that when distressed too far 

Melts off in vaporish airs and is no more ! 

Oh, for some power that swiftly should unlock 

The atoms of my spirit, that they might fly 

Asunder once for all, and all my thoughts 

Be cast abroad under the windy stars, 

Blown off in gulfs of nothingness. Then no more, 

Fixed in immortal entity of woe, 

Should I ejaculate to mine own grief 

That syllable of god-like torture — 4 1.' 

What doom has come on me that I must go 

Seeking mine own soul's death, yet find it not ? 

But still my spirit, breathed of God, must bear 

Its ancient and intolerable shape. 

Thou gaze of Truth, that, sphering forth my soul, 

Still keeps me focussed — for one moment lift 

That splendor from me ! Then I '11 plunge out in 

dark 
And be no more a self . . . Oh ! Oh ! Oh ! Oh ! 
Who am I ? What ? . . . Once did I have a 

name ? — 
Ye blocks of nothingness that, hewn by me, 
Built up in dungeons dreadful and unseen, 
Immure my soul in darkness ! I, no more, 
Shall feel upon my spirit that sweet breath 
Of ancient freedom. I, no more, shall plunge 



NIMROD 121 

Like droves of horses up my thoughts' steep plains 

Nor in deep coverts hunt out mighty prey 

Of fearful knowledge — Huntsman before the 

Lord. 
Nor perched upon some mighty spiritual cliff 
Shall I snatch down the lightning out of Heaven 
To be unto my sons a flaming sword. 
When I was young and in my spirit's health, 
I dreamed such deeds as great archangels dream, 
Such that astonished cherubs plumed in flame 
Bent down to listen to my murmuring sleep. 
I plotted triumphs beautiful and great, 
With battle calls and singing clamor sweet ! 
Then, like mellifluous pipes with silver sound, 
By mine own soul my flesh was blown upon ! 
Where is my clarion ? On what inner hills 
Blows my shrill trumpet ? When shall my host 

return ? 
And oh, ye sweet and many-voiced pipes, 
To what harsh discord has your music gone ! 
I have so frightened nature that her milk 
Has lost its sustenance, and when I turn 
To her rich bosom she yields unto my soul 
A food that palsies and a drink that kills. 
Where shall I go ? What shall I do ? What hearth 
Shall warm me now with flames ? Is there a roof 
To shield me from the tempest ? No ! No — I say ! 



122 NIMROD 

For I am not as one that being thrust 

Out of an alien door goes forth alone 

Cursing his hostile tribe, but in the plains 

Habits in some dark cave with lynx or owl, 

Befriended by nutritious earth ! I am 

A wandering vacuum by space cast out, 

Abhorred by nature and by God accursed. 

Oh thou appalling universe ! Thou hast 

No darkened cranny wherein I can hide 

From mine affliction. What will ye do to me ? 

Ye crouching, hostile, savage entities 

Of earth, air, water, wood, flesh, spirit, stone ! 

There's not one grain of sand upon the plain 

But from its breast such furies are unleashed 

As hound my spirit forth — it knows not where. 

Oh, while I live on earth, each thing that is 

Shall scourge my soul with its identity, 

Accusing, awful, unutterably real. 

Ye fierce existing things, how shall I make 

Peace with you ever ! Brand upon my lips, 

Thou Spirit of Truth, some burning word, so 

deep 
Pain cannot shake it thence. Then I will go 
Shouting it forth. But let my people turn 
On me in wrath and scourge me for my speech! 
Yes, stone me to the dust ! Yes — strip from me 
My clamorous flesh and send mine outraged ghost 



NIMROD 123 

Breathing forth vengeance and a shout of truth ! 

So might ye be appeased, ye things that bear 

A shape upon you and mine own soul might feel 

A solace to its grief. It cannot be ! 

But when I die and leave this earth I '11 go 

An ancient wanderer through the universe, 

Hounded by meteors, cast off by the stars, 

Plunged into chaos. Oh ye musics huge 

That deepen into splendors with rich suns 

Or wane with dying moons — never by you 

Shall I be comforted but yet more damned 

Because ye are so real. For I am one 

With such deep contradiction in my soul 

That when God to the void cried — ' Let there 

be' — 
I, unto groaning chaos, shouted, ' No.' 
Ye giant harmonies that in deep space 
Build up proud architectures — not with you, 
Shall I in sounding chambers of delight 
Seek shelter from the intolerable waste. 
Not in your shining palace may I dwell, 
Who raisedjnyjelf amid the howling waste 
A small a nd evil tent j}f the jjnrpal. 
Ye powers that drive upon that falling roof 
Your blazing weapons — be merciless to me. 
With your strong, glittering spears stab me clean 

through. 



124 NIMROD 

Let not my dangerous spirit rove at large. 
Fix me forever on some shuddering orb, 
Sad and for ages doomed. For if I go, 
Sweeping through space my pale terrific ghost, 
Against mine own deep will I shall afflict 
The duteous orbits of the stars ; shall drive 
My hounds of fierce negation forth with howls, 
Devouring living entities, until 
The world shall reek with carcasses of thought. 
Or I might snatch from Heaven its accuracies 
That twist and wreathe and wonderfully bind 
His seasons and His planets ! Whirl them forth — 
Shuddering, beautiful, voluminous, bright, 
Then cast them hissing underneath my feet 
With all their cunning gone ! Then, then indeed, 
God's whole creation fearfully shall rock ! 
Or if with spells of hate and mutterings deep 
I snare his numbers forth from midmost air 
So that his strong foundations crumble quite! 
Think, think, ye angels ! with what eyes of grief 
Ye would survey your aching atmosphere, 
If I should snatch their poles from the swift orbs 
Or casting grief upon the air whirl forth 
Great shrieking circles that my thought had flayed 
Of their circumference — or if my hand 
Stripped time from ofF the stars — then — Send 
me peace! 



NIMROD 125 

Thou blasting light, shine not upon me so 

That I should see the face of mine offence. 

Thou burning Truth ! How fearfully lit up 

Is my own thought before me, as when dark crags 

Jutting from off a mountain's thundering peak, 

With blazing lightning sheeted in living flame, 

Glow terribly apparent. 

Oh, — if from out my spirit there had sprung 

Some great new virtue — someunimagined good — 

Such as the angels of the choiring spheres 

Might gaze upon with love and breed it forth 

For their delight — like great melodious doves ! 

Then should this cruel splendor show me plain, 

Set on time's promontory where men's eyes 

Gazing upon me ever should behold 

Eternal beauty on my breast. But now, 

With haggard front and a bewildered eye, 

With barren countenance and shaking bone, 

They see me lifting in accursed hands 

A fearful offering of archetypal woe, 

Deep in my breast an everlasting shame, 

And on my lips an immemorial lie. 

Yet shine, shine on, thou awful Truth, and make 

My deep affliction deeper. Let me know 

Full well what I have done. Yes, let me sit 

For centuries staring at this deed of mine, 

So I may see on it thy fearful light 



126 NIMROD 

Nor wholly lose thee from mine eyes gone blind. 
Increase my woe. Let me behold thee more. 
Oh, not with slow recessional of light 
Subdue my anguish in me. Ease me not 
With lesser wisdom. But upon my soul 
Beat down thy full and devastating light. 
So I shall mourn for aeons, eternal, sad, 
Original, disastrous, inventive, stretched 
Upon the starry wheels of cosmic pain, 
Tremendous and afflicted, huge, chastised, 
Greatest among the anguished gods of wrong — 
I will preserve my planetary throes — 
Nor yield my nature unto smaller pains." 

But lo, ere he was done, upon the peaks 
Of his soul's mountains, thunder roared and shook 
The hidden regions of his mind. The spears 
Of multitudes of angels flashed and plunged 
In his deep substance, as the fiery bolt 
Buries itself in stone. Then from God's eyes 
Swept forth a cloud of darkness, such as cast 
His consciousness in foggy night. Bright thoughts, 
Like stars in the deep heaven of his mind, 
Tore their fixed bodies, screaming, from that sky, 
And flashed away to emptiness. Oh, then 
Was Nimrod seized with violent grief that shook 
His giant limbs. He reared, he plunged, he bent. 



NIMROD 127 

He filled the air with such harsh cries as when 

Wild horses deep in forest fires, raise 

Upon the shuddering night, unearthly screams. 

He swerved this way and that, and falling prone 

Like a huge herd of cattle, beat the dust. 

Then, raised aloft, he flung his groaning bulk 

Into the air and dizzily swept through space 

Circles of anguish as if a falling orb 

Wheeled through the heavens on vast curves of 

pain. 
Then, drawing back his thousand agonies, 
His shakings, sweatings, terrors, dreads, despairs, 
His furies, retributions, rages, griefs, 
He bound them as the fearful hand of God 
Locks fiery whirlwind into speechless stone. 
Silent he spread, to helpless earth appalled, 
And Babel's curse fell on great Nimrod's tongue. 
Then, then, his spirit's golden bastions shook J 
His starry dome of high philosophy 
Flung down its meteors, and the columns huge 
Of stately logic crumbled. In his soul 
The shining architectures of sweet tone 
Were spread in ruin. Down the corridors 
Of his dark brain plunged wild and gusty shapes 
Of syllables affrighted. Routed forth, 
Flared great white faces of astonished words. 
From chambers of music and deep vaults of sound 



iz8 NIMROD 

Where they had hidden, wild and lovely dreams, 
Clothed in a virginal vesture of sweet song, 
Went mad with discord. Then forgetfulness 
Swept its slow fogs on mighty Nimrod's brain. 
Awful aphasias, with their bleeding whips, 
Scourged from its palace sweetly singing speech, 
Beautiful symbols out of music made, 
Syllables lovely, metaphors sweet shaped 
That, floating brightly, danced before the Lord ; 
And from their altars many a priest-like word 
They drove from ceremonials of high thought. 
Then guiles and crafts, wreathing like thick black 

snakes, 
Choked meaning like snared birds and creeping lies 
Soft, thick and shining, monstrous and snow white, 
Coiled palely round the struggling limbs of speech. 
Then forth upon the air, not to return, 
There leaped from Nimrod's lips terrific sounds 
Driven by God's anger. Verbs like men at arms 
Charged battling forth ; and bold and blazing 

nouns 
Like chariots, fury ridden ; adjectives 
That spread their fiery bellies in the sun 
Till all their quivering wings as copper shone ; 
Ejaculations huge, deep tones of woe, 
Thundering gutturals, hissing sibilants 
Of fire-breathing serpents — every sound 



NIMROD 129 

That once had ministered to dream or thought, 
Plunged from his shouting lips and shook the air, 
Blazed brightly on the shadowy gale and then 
Swept up to Heaven. When Nimrod saw them 

g° 
He stood confounded, and upon him fell 
Vacuity, that numbed with aching sleep 
All he had ever known. Then did he seem 
Like one whose will, in bitter conflict plunged, 
Grapples with thought, but with a flaming shield 
That Heavenly warrior to the Lord returns. 
Then from those lips that once had moved the 

earth 
And swayed God's ramparts with their prayers, 

there came 
First accents of a speech before unheard ; 
Faint murmurings, and sighs and querulous 

breaths, 
Mutterings, peevish whispers, babble wild, 
Bewildered utterances and whimpering cries 
Like those of bleeding curs. And fiercer notes 
Of astonishment and wrath shook from his lips, 
New fearful curses, shoutings of dismay, 
Alarums, prophecies of dire events, 
And wild deliriums of mongrel tones. 
But when he strove to lift his voice to Heaven 
And cast with splendor before the Golden Throne 



i 3 o NIMROD 

His great and ancient prayers — then his vague 

lips 
Loose, stammering, uttered speech against his will, 
Terrible laughter, crazy emptiness — 
And a thick mumbling blurred great Nimrod's lips. 
Then did he speak no more. But knowing now 
What he had done before God's face, he stood 
Refusing from his voice those lesser tones 
That like the Titans had pursued the Gods 
From his Olympian lips. Silent he grew, 
Choosing instead to be forever dumb. 
Thus Nimrod stood and the slow night wore on. 
And her dark patience wasted into dawn. 
But when that august silence on his lips, 
Unbearable, unending, seemed to draw 
Her soul up to him, as the old dead moon 
Bids up the sombre tide, the huddled shape, 
That had so long been crouched at Nimrod's feet, 
Heaved heavily and underneath his eyes 
Spoke syllables he did not understand. 
But when upon his glassy eye there shone 
The pale and awful beauty of her face, 
Once more the tranced waters of his mind 
Shone with the glimmering radiance of words, 
Reflections of such thoughts as in the sky 
Of his soul's Heaven hung like spiritual stars. 
£.nd a vast cry issued from Nimrod's lips, 



NIMROD 131 

A primal utterance and an ancient word. 
Then did eternal silence seize his tongue 
And there was heard no more upon the earth 
The solemn beauty of that elder speech. 

PART VII 

And they that went from Babel were a host 
Of mighty men. And with them they bore forth 
Monsters of bronze and grotesque images 
Cast from the walls, and wandering in the plains 
They worshiped these false gods and unto them 
Were terror and disaster. For since God's hand 
Cast down the vessels of their lying tongue, 
Men dwelt no more in brotherhood, but built 
Cities against each other, breeders of war, 
And spoke with differing and hostile speech. 
And they were scattered westward on the plains 
And built up mighty cities known of old, 
Dark Nineveh — ferocious Babylon. 
But ere they left the desert sands they turned, 
And pointing back beheld upon the plain, 
Besieged with glittering armies of the sun, 
The ruins of great Babel. And that town 
Lay in vast stillness. In the silent halls 
No human voice broke the empty air. 
No human footfall when the dusk was cool 



132 



NIMROD 



Left desolate sound upon the echoing stone ; 
But in the deep, reverberating gloom 
Down thundering gullies heaped of gold and bronze 
The bell-like roaring of the unicorn — 
And in far courts the windy satyr screamed ! 
At night with mournful voice the gusty gale 
Searched through dark corridors of ruinous bronze. 
With ghostly shout and supernatural cries 
It filled the air with desolate shapes unseen. 
When noon was hot, the desert lion came 
And slaked his thirst at many a quiet pool. 
Hyenas laughed where once sweet courts were 

green. 
The flying serpent with his sighing tune 
Beat the hot sunshine with metallic wings. 
Through hideous gorges and down sounding flumes 
That had been streets in Nimrod's mighty town, 
Deep rivers roared or snow-white cataracts plunged. 
Dragons were in their pleasant palaces — 
Grey wolves howled down the corridors unseen. 
Over hot fragments of smooth paving stone 
In bright mercurial arabesques there flamed 
The glimmering viper, and in colonnades, 
With brassy columns or columns of black bronze, 
Huge snakes in cruel stupor darkly hung 
Their bulky richness, fierce, arboreal. 
The bat beneath the arches made his home. 






NIMROD 133 

And all alone in melancholy halls, 
Over a windy shadow, swept the owl. 
Eve after eve, through jagged clouds, the sun 
In blood-red splendor gazed upon the flumes, 
The gorges deep, the terrible ravines 
Of those deserted ruins. It did not seem 
Within the years of man, but might have been 
Some fearful ravage of primeval gods. 
For like a ruined god whose fearful shape 
Had been appalled to everlasting stone, 
Rock-like in devastation, with his beard 
Moss-like upon his bosom, and his hair, 
With horror whitened, the only moving thing 
Upon the air of night, great Nimrod reared 
His shattered bulk. Gigantic, Nimrod stood, 
Flanked with majestic ruin. But his gaze 
Was set against the darkness and the wind. 
Huge monsters huddled round him wrought of 

bronze. 
He had not moved since from his lips that last 
Great ancient word had broken, but he stood 
With arms outstretched and mighty palms pressed 

down, 
Bulwarked in anguish and in grief composed. 
His solemn strife besieged the midnight gloom. 
Nor might that shape crouched darkly at his feet 
Shake down the solid bastion of his woe. 



i 3 4 NIMROD 

For since the moment when gigantic grief, 
Bracing his bulwarks war-like against time, 
Heaved up the mighty derricks of his bone — 
He was as one in spirit so enthroned 
Beyond mortality that never more 
Might he know grief, save of his spirit's throes. 
As if an anguished angel on a star, 
Throbbing with golden immemorial woes 
For cosmic wrong, heard not upon the earth 
In jungles dark the howling of the beast — 
So, fixed upon his starry orb of grief, 
He gave no heed unto the brutish rage 
That shook the mortal forests of his flesh. 
But he was not more silent than the shape 
Of earth-like devastation at his feet. 
He did not cry to her nor moved at all 
When in the night the rolling clouds immured 
The brightness of the moon and in the dark 
Obscured the staring whiteness of her face. 
Nor when the heavy thunder of God's throne 
Split into fearful chasms the black night 
And he was sunk in dizzying gulfs of rain. 
Nor when the lightning swept him forth once 

more 
In speechless patience, as if burning wheels 
Had whirled him up from nothingness accursed, 
Stretched on a vast circumference of flame. 



NIMROD 135 

Nor when with huge and fiery bolts he seemed 
Struck through and through with such large pangs 

as gods 
Nailed against empty chaos might endure — 
The great progenitor of a new crime, 
Doomed to immortal grief and cosmic pain. 
For still his crag-like presence flanked the gale 
Like a calm precipice, nor did he shake 
His citadel of woe. But when at last 
The whirlwind of God's chariot rolled away, 
With shuddering sinew and with groping hand, 
With frightful palsies and Teachings of dumb pain, 
He plucked the woman crouching at his feet, 
And pointing to almighty Heaven, he stretched 
A hand upon her, turning to the sky 
The pale and watchful beauty of her face. 
For poised aloft out of dark wracks of cloud, 
There flamed amid the fastness of the sky 
A monstrous globule, a soft shining sphere, 
A fearful brightness, stranger than a star. 
A vessel of pure fire, it moved serene. 
Eternal, beautiful, orbed in golden light 
The moon shone over Babel — and it seemed 
As if an Angel, before celestial hosts, 
Raised in mid Heaven the eternal Word of God. 



THE MONK IN THE KITCHEN 



Order is a lovely thing; 

On disarray it lays its wing, 

Teaching simplicity to sing. 

It has a meek and lowly grace, 

Quiet as a nun's face. 

Lo — I will have thee in this place ! 

Tranquil well of deep delight, 

Transparent as the water, bright — 

All things that shine through thee appear 

As stones through water, sweetly clear. 

Thou clarity, 

That with angelic charity 

Revealest beauty where thou art, 

Spread thyself like a clean pool. 

Then all the things that in thee are 

Shall seem more spiritual and fair, 

Reflections from serener air — 

Sunken shapes of many a star 

In the high heavens set afar. 

II 

Ye stolid, homely, visible things, 
Above you all brood glorious wings 



THE MONK IN THE KITCHEN 137 

Of your deep entities, set high, 
Like slow moons in a hidden sky. 
But you, their likenesses, are spent 
Upon another element. 
Truly ye are but seemings — 
The shadowy cast-off gleamings 
Of bright solidities. Ye seem 
Soft as water, vague as dream ; 
Image, cast in a shifting stream. 

Ill 

What are ye ? 

I know not. 

Brazen pan and iron pot, 

Yellow brick and gray flag-stone 

That my feet have trod upon — 

Ye seem to me 

Vessels of bright mystery. 

For ye do bear a shape, and so 

Though ye were made by man, I know 

An inner Spirit also made 

And ye his breathings have obeyed. 

IV 

Shape, the strong and awful Spirit, 
Laid his ancient hand on you. 
He waste chaos doth inherit; 



138 THE MONK IN THE KITCHEN 

He can alter and subdue. 

Verily, he doth lift up 

Matter, like a sacred cup. 

Into deep substance he reached, and lo 

Where ye were not, ye were; and so 

Out of useless nothing, ye 

Groaned and laughed and came to be. 

And I use you, as I can, 

Wonderful uses, made for man, 

Iron pot and brazen pan. 

V 

What are ye? 

I know not; 

Nor what I really do 

When I move and govern you. 

There is no small work unto God. 

He requires of us greatness ; 

Of his least creature 

A high angelic nature, 

Stature superb and bright completeness. 

He sets to us no humble duty. 

Each act that he would have us do 

Is haloed round with strangest beauty. 

Terrific deeds and cosmic tasks 

Of his plainest child he asks. 

When I polish the brazen pan 



THE MONK IN THE KITCHEN 139 

I hear a creature laugh afar 

In the gardens of a star, 

And from his burning presence run 

Flaming wheels of many a sun. 

Whoever makes a thing more bright, 

He is an angel of all light. 

When I cleanse this earthen floor 

My spirit leaps to see 

Bright garments trailing over it. 

Wonderful lustres cover it, 

A cleanness made by me. 

Purger of all men's thoughts and ways, 

With labor do I sound Thy praise, 

My work is done for Thee. 

Whoever makes a thing more bright, 

He is an angel of all light. 

Therefore let me spread abroad 

The beautiful cleanness of my God. 

VI 

One time in the cool of dawn 
Angels came and worked with me. 
The air was soft with many a wing. 
They laughed amid my solitude 
And cast bright looks on everything. 
Sweetly of me did they ask 
That they might do my common task. 



i 4 o THE MONK IN THE KITCHEN 

And all were beautiful — but one 

With garments whiter than the sun 

Had such a face 

Of deep, remembered grace, 

That when I saw I cried — " Thou art 

The great Blood-Brother of my heart. 

Where have I seen thee?" — And he said, 

" When we are dancing 'round God's throne, 

How often thou art there. 

Beauties from thy hands have flown 

Like white doves wheeling in mid air. 

Nay — thy soul remembers not? 

Work on, and cleanse thy iron pot." 

VII 

What are we? I know not. 



DREAM 

But now the Dream has come again, the world is 

as of old. 
Once more I feel about my breast the heartening 

splendors »fold. . 
Now I am back in that good place from which 

my footsteps came, 
And I am hushed of any grief and have laid by my 

shame. 

I know not by what road I came — oh wonderful 

and fair. 
Only I know I ailed for thee and that thou wert 

not there. 
Then suddenly Time's stalwart wall before thee 

did divide, 
Its solid bastions dreamed and swayed and there 

was I inside. 

It is thy nearness makes thee seem so wonderful 

and far. 
In that deep sky thou art obscured as in the noon, 

a star. 



142 DREAM 

But when the darkness of my grief swings up the 

mid-day sky 
My need begets a shining world. Lo, in thy light 

am I. 

All that I used to be is there and all I yet shall be. 
My laughter deepens in the air, my quiet in the 

tree. 
My utter tremblings of delight are manna from the 

sky, 
And shining flower-like in the grass my innocencies 

lie. 

And here I run and sleep and laugh and have no 

name at all. 
Only if God should speak to me then I would 

heed the call. 
And I forget the curious ways, the alien looks of 

men, 
For even as it was of old, so is it now again. 

Still every angel looks the same and all the folks 

are there 
That are so bounteous and mild and have not any 

care. 
But kindest to me is the one I would most choose 

to be. 



DREAM 143 

She is so beautiful and sheds such loving looks on 
me. 

She is so beautiful — and lays her cheek against my 

own. 
Back — in the world — they all will say, " How 

happy you have grown." 
Her breath is sweet about my eyes and she has 

healed me now, 
Though I be scarred with grief, I keep her kiss 

upon my brow. 

All day, sweet land, I fight for thee outside the 

goodly wall, 
And 'twixt my breathless wounds I have no sight 

of thee at all ! 
And sometimes I forget thy looks and what thy 

ways may be ! 
I have denied thou wert at all — yet still I fight for 

thee. 



THE WARRIOR MAID 

They bade me to my spinning 
Because I was a maid, 
But down into the battle 
I marshalled unafraid. 

Brightly against the sunbeams 
I shook the flaming lance. 
Then out I swept to gather 
With the red and royal dance. 

The war was stately in me, 
And in my heart was pride — 
Fierce moods like neighing horses 
Most terribly did ride. 

Deep as a sea of scarlet 
I saw the banners roll — 
And then the great war terror 
Laid hold upon my soul. 

I laughed aloud to feel it 
And royally did cheer : 
I strode amid my tremblings 
And did not fear to fear. 



THE WARRIOR MAID 145 

A warrior rode against me. 

I laid him to his rest. 

I could not stop to gather 

The bright sword from his breast. 

But on I drove in splendor, 
I — that was but a maid — 
With piercing calls of triumph 
And I was not afraid. 

But once, beneath my charging, 
A face shone up below. 
Dead in the bloody furrow, 
A stranger white as snow ! 

The foe rode close behind me ! 
I lost the day for this — 
I sprang from off my stallion 
And left on him a kiss. 

The sword that pierced his bosom 
With jewelled splendor shone. 
I snatched it from him bleeding, 
And lo, it was my own. 

The spears blazed thick around me 
When I leaped forth again. 



146 THE WARRIOR MAID 

But jubilant they found me 
To face a thousand men. 



Bright-voiced was my laughter, 
I — that was but a maid ! 
And when the sharp gyve bound me, 
Then was I not afraid. 

Ah, hadst thou lived, my warrior, 
Among the glorious ones, 
I had borne thee savage daughters 
And beautiful fierce sons. 



ERE THE GOLDEN BOWL IS 
BROKEN 

He gathered for His own delight 
The sparkling waters of my soul. 

A thousand creatures, bubbling bright — 
He set me in a golden bowl. 

From the deep cisterns of the earth 

He bade me up — the shining daughter — 

And I am exquisite with mirth, 
A brightening and a sunlit water. 

The wild, the free, the radiant one, 

A happy bubble I did glide. 
I poised my sweetness to the sun 

And there I sleeked my silver side. 

Sometimes I lifted up my head 

And globed the moonlight with my hands, 
Or thin as flying wings I spread 

Angelic wildness through the sands. 

Then, woven into webs of light, 

I breathed, I sighed, I laughed aloud, 



148 ERE THE GOLDEN BOWL IS BROKEN 

And lifting up my pinions bright 

I shone in Heaven, a bird-white cloud. 

Then did I dance above the mead, 

And through the crystal fields would run, 

And from my scarlet splendors breed 
The golden thunders of the sun. 

Beneath the whitening stars I flew 
And floated moon-like on the breeze, 

Or my frail heart was pierced through 
With sharp sweet flowers of the trees. 

Of giant crags I bear the scars, 
And I have swept along the gale, 

Such multitudes as are the stars, 
My myriad faces rapt and pale. 

As savage creatures strong and free 
Make wild the jungle of the wood, 

The starry powers that sport in me 
Habit my silver solitude. 

From out my smallness, soft as dew, 
That utter fastness, stern and deep, 

Terrible meanings look at you 

Like visions from the eyes of sleep. 



ERE THE GOLDEN BOWL IS BROKEN 149 

I cannot leap — I cannot run — 
I only glimmer, soft and mild, 

A limpid water in the sun, 

A sparkling and a sunlit child. 

What stranger ways shall yet be mine 
When I am spilled, you cannot see. 

But now you laugh to watch me shine, 
And smooth the hidden stars in me. 

Lightly you stroke my silver wing — 
The folded carrier of my soul. 

A soft, a shy, a silent thing, 
A water in a golden bowl! 



CONNECTICUT ROAD SONG 

In the wide and rocky pasture where the cedar 

trees are gray, 
The briar rose was growing with the blueberry and 

bay. 
The girls went forth to pick them and the lads 

went out to play, 
But I had to get to Stonington before the break of 

day. 

And when I came to Stonington, she was a town 

of pride. 
u Come in," they said, "and labor, and be at home 

and bide. 
For gold shall be thy wage," but 't was past the 

hour of morn — 
And I had to get to Jordan while the dew was on 

the thorn. 

There is a girl at Jordan, she sweetly smiled at me, 
As pale as are the berries on the gray cedar tree. 
And " Oh," she cried, " thou traveler, come bide 

awhile with me," 
But I had to get to Lebanon while light was in 

the tree. 



CONNECTICUT ROAD SONG 151 

The pale church spires of Lebanon shone sweet 

upon the sky. 
The Sabbath bells were ringing, the parson passed 

me by. 
" Oh wait, traveler, wait, for you 've need to say 

a prayer," 
But I had to be in Wallingford while noon was 

in the air. 

The road that leads to Wallingford, it runs through 

mire and stone. 
I was parched with the dust, I was bleeding and 

alone. 
" My lad, you will die, if you do not tarry here." 
But I had to get to Killingworth while day was on 

the mere. 

And when I got to Killingworth I heard the people 

say 
" He has come to bring the news from a hundred 

miles away." 
But I had not any news and not any time to stay, 
For I had to be at Jericho before the end of day. 

And when I came to Jericho I heard the people call, 
" Do you run to save a city that you will not wait 
at all ? " 



152 CONNECTICUT ROAD SONG 

" I run to save no city, yet must I leave you soon, 
For I have to be in Windsor with the rising of the 
, moon." 

And when I got to Windsor, then was I spent for 

bread. 
" Come in," they cried, " poor traveler ! and be 

thou comforted. 
What strange great need is on thee that makes thee 

journey so ? " 
But I had to be in Coventry ere yet the moon was 

low. 

For a strange great need was on me that I should 
hunt the rain, 

And take into my body a breakage and a pain ; 

That I should tame the sunset and goad the hurry- 
ing plain, 

And that the leagues behind me should lie a 
thousand slain. 

Wherefore, ye men of Coventry, if ye desire to 

stay, 
Lay not your curb upon me, that love the open way. 
For I want to smell the dew, the blueberry and 

the bay, 
And I have to get to Colchester before the break 

of day. 



SO I MAY FEEL THE HANDS 
OF GOD 

How swiftly, once, on silvery feet 
I saw thee bound beneath the sun ! 
Oh, savage innocence ! The fleet, 
The wild, the sweet, the glistening one ! 

God made in thee the gentlest sound 
To win for thee the dear caress. 
Like flowers growing in the ground 
We heard that trembling daintiness. 

Thou art strange Nature's subtlest child, 
The offspring of her alien mood. 
Now age has come on thee, the wild, 
And stricken thee, the simply good. 

Animal sweetness, when it goes, 
Leaves emptiness behind. 
Dear, thou must wither like the rose 
And dimness take thy creature mind. 

No more we laugh to see thee run — 
The innocent, the fierce, the sweet ! 
Thy snow-white dancing in the sun ! 
The rushing of thy happy feet ! 



154 so I MAY FEEL THE HANDS OF GOD 

The hearthstone and the friendly touch, 
Thou art grown needy, now, for these. 
How strange that wanting them so much 
Thou hast forgot the arts to please. 

Oh, creature age ! creature distress ! 
The haunting, old, and dim surprise ! 
Would I might charm with tenderness 
The grief from those bewildered eyes ! 

Thou hast no more, at love's commands, 
The simple sweetness of a purr. 
Then let me comfort with my hands 
The saddening of thy shining fur. 

When cold afflicts thy piteous sod 
Then let me warm that need of thine, 
So I may feel the hands of God 
Laid over thee — more close than mine. 



TO AN ENEMY 



I saw thee once. I shall know thee ever. 

Beyond the frantic mesh 

Of thy wild sorrowing flesh, 

Oh, thou wert beautiful ! 

Let me be dutiful 

To thy high spirit. 

Knowing thee great and wise 

Let me inherit 

All the calm Paradise 

Hidden behind thine eyes. 



Never again shall any way, 

Or look, or word of thine deceive. 

I saw thee once. I must believe 

The vision of that day. 

How shall I say 

What splendor and what awe 
Seized on my eyes that suddenly they saw, 

Beyond all praise or blame 
An angelic creature shaped of snow and flame. 



156 TO AN ENEMY 



Oh, shame on me 

If I should ever be 

A traitor unto thee ! 

If I believe thy lying flesh that says 
"It was not so." 
Or if its wrathful and complaining speech 
Make me forget the secret lovely ways 
Of thy soul's ritual ... if I should forego 

My memory of thy grace 
Or how in a strange inner place 
Just for a moment I saw thy face. 



I saw thee once. I shall know thee ever. 

Swiftly my earthly sight 
Shadowed thy lovely light, 
Then thy mortal semblance gazed 

On me with sullen eye. 
I wept and I was sore amazed 

At thy deep hostility. 
But oh, I did not blame thee 
When thou didst rend and shame me. 

I said, "The wrong's my own 
That was so dazzled at thy spirit's throne 
I could not bear the splendor and the might. 



TO AN ENEMY 157 

Why shouldst thou not accuse me, 

Yes, terribly refuse me, 
And scourge with splendor for my lack of sight ! " 



But yet 
I saw thee once and I shall not forget. 

Faithful, oh faithful will I be 
To thy more starry nature sunk in thee, 

That bright, mysterious guest, 
To thine own thought not yet made manifest. 

I will do thee service lowly 

Because thou art so holy. 



What can I think of to do, 

Beautiful, because of you ? 

Exquisite actions unto thee, 

Deeds that thou wilt never see, 

Hidden from thy mortal sight ! 
And God will praise thee for the deeds I do, 
Knowing that somehow they were done by you. 

Yes, it shall be my sole elation 

That when I light my flame 

Saying, " In thy name " — 
That deed will somehow count to thy salvation. 



i 5 8 TO AN ENEMY 



Then, when thy mortal self shall scorn and hate, 

And from thy lips shall fall 

Harsh condemnation, 
Therefore I will exult, nor will abate 

My joyous carnival, 

That so I more may prove 

My deep and ardent love. 



I will set a flower to grow 
Where flowers never grew at all ; 

Down low 
In the thick grass, or covert of the wall. 
Then beauty will have come to pass. 
I will drop a pebble in a stream 
So it will quicken and gleam 
And brighten all alone 
A joy unto none. 
Still it will be 
Secretly beautiful — and all for thee 

Because thou art ! 
So will I make thee more than human, 
Set thee in Heaven's deepest heart, 

One of God's laws, 
Of loveliness the being and the cause. 



TO AN ENEMY 159 



Once I wished my mortal self to be 

Of my own deepest self the fair expression. 

Now I yield it unto thee 
To be thy glad articulate confession. 
Once I could loiter, growing beautiful, 
And serving mine own soul could take mine 

ease. 
I serve thee now. I must be dutiful. 
Constant as sky is, urgent as the seas, 
More swift than time, as patient as the trees, 
I must be robed in natural majesties. 
Yes, shouting to the cities and the skies 

Show thee to mortal eyes. 



How easy heroisms are, 

Now I have seen thy face ! 
My will can bind them as God binds a star, 
In my soul's orbit. Never any more 
Do they plunge forth, escaping me in night. 
They have grown docile now, and with delight 
Attend me ever, brightening my brow. 
Oh, in my breast I hold their throbbing spheres. 
My spirit sings with laughter, achieving now 
What once it did with bleeding and with tears. 



160 TO AN ENEMY 



Beauty in many a secret place 
I will make for thee. 
Because I saw thy face 
I will manifest thy grace 
And thou shalt be 

A visible splendor on the earth, 
A festival of mirth ! 



Though men shall see thee not and none shall 
praise 
Thy beauteous hidden ways, 
Still I will not be daunted. 
My spirit shall be haunted 
With thy more starry nature, 
Thou high and blessed creature! 



SELENE 

But when Endymion, wandering alone, 
With youth and love of loveliness forlorn, 
Being greatly sorrowful with beauty, came 
Upon the silence of a moonlit lake 
Deep in a sacred grove j and when he saw 
How in the water a pale presence shone, 
So he might touch that ancient loveliness, 
Yet never lay a hand upon the moon ; 
He cried aloud, " Oh, Spirit of this earth, 
That in the flame and cloud, water and wind, 
Hast shed thine image, yet art never seen ! 
Invisible ! Where art thou ? " 

Then to him 
Selene from her fastness in the air 
Spoke, with no mortal voice in his ear, 
But to his soul and as a goddess speaks 
With divine utterance. " Oh, Watcher ! Thou, 
Mover among innumerable shapes 
And lover of my shadow, many years 
With shining substance have thy hands been filled 
And pleased with lovely changes. But on me 
Thy flesh has not laid hold. Not with thine eye 
Hast thou perceived my smoothness and thine ear 
Has heard me never. Underneath a tree 



1 62 SELENE 

When hast thou found me sleeping? To what 

spring 
Have I come down to drink ? In what dark groves 
Have my feet led thee, shining among leaves ? 
Thou hast not seen me dance among the nymphs 
Nor sport with fauns at dusk. For in this world 
I say there dwells a spirit and she lives 
Hidden even from the gods, and of her face 
Zeus has not dreamed. She is consuming, fierce, 
Beautiful and withheld. She layeth waste 
The gardens of men's flesh — and I am She. 
I am the fearful Huntress. With my hounds 
I all men must pursue until they seek 
My silent altar in an ancient place 
No man has thought on and no eye has seen. 
I am the Runner. I am the goddess chaste. 
If with thy fleshly eye thou shouldst perceive 
Mine angry whiteness, swiftly would I slay. 
For I am set apart and spiritual, 
And me in spiritual ways thou must discern. 
Oh, not with doves or bleeding snow-white hinds 
Or incense burned or harvest of wild grapes 
Shalt thou appease me. But thou shalt lay down 
Upon my shrine the shadow and the sound, 
The sheen and whisper of the tender earth, 
All shapes and brightnesses and music sweet, 
And soft mysterious touch, the breath, the look 



SELENE 163 

The beauty changing ever. From thine eyes 

All loveliness shall pale. Then not for thee 

Shall Aphrodite from the golden wave 

Blush rosily nor from the snow-white foam 

Float like a star before thee. Not for thee 

Shall the soft nymphs their shining dances weave 

In places sweet with loveliness. But then, 

Out of the hollow of thy hand shall fall 

All lovely substance that has ever pleased 

Thy finger tips with shapes, all curves that shed 

Sweet music in the concave of thy palm 

As in the sky the orbed planets sing. 

Thy sense shall be obscured. Thy austere touch 

Deny the chilly sweetness of the dew 

That cools the apple plucked at early dawn 

Or whitens the blue grape. Never again 

Shall thy smooth body plunging between waves 

Divide the hard bright water nor thy brow 

Flush in the noonday sun nor thy feet cling 

To the bare rock when thou dost climb high hills. 

Thou shalt forego the tenderness of hands 

Nor ever feel upon thy human cheek 

The sweetness of a mortal breath. No kiss 

Shall leave its softest shadow on thy lips, 

But thou shalt find thyself in a still place 

Where light nor shade nor forms of visible things 

Nor sense of things perceived with hands shall wake 



1 64 SELENE 

Thy heart in thee — not one least sound at all — 

As when the shadow of a cloud shall drift 

Dim music from a lonely lake. Not then 

Shalt thou love voices, oh, Endymion ! 

Then not for thee strong laughter and the shouts 

Of boys beside the sea cliffs dragging in 

Their nets at yellow evening ; not the cries 

Of girls on the brown beaches ; nor the speech 

Of mortal love. I bid thee light for me 

A blazing fire on my shrine — all flames 

Of suns and moons and stars, such glories as burn 

In sunset and the rose, all loveliest hues 

That on this earth glow brightest. In their midst 

Cast down the vision of thine eyes as one 

Snares from the sky a bird whose radiant plumes 

Burn amid sacrificial flames. Oh, Thou ! 

Give me the sound that in thine ears doth make 

Earth good to thee. Relinquish from thy hands 

All feelings of fair things, sweetly entwined 

With votive wreaths of flowers. Yet not in death 

Yield me thy body's sweetness, but alive, 

Rapturous, alert, with thy desires swift, 

Warm, breathing, upright, in thy bourgeoning 

youth, 
With consecrated purpose and with will 
Cast in my flames thy sense and make of it 
A fragrance to the gods, and of thy flesh 



SELENE 165 

A vapor of light smoke. For I am one 
That once suspected shall not ever more 
Let go of thee, but being invisible 
Must needs disturb thee ever. Never again 
Shall earth seem simple to thee, beautiful 
With shapes familiar and with readable signs, 
But thou shalt move a stranger in the land 
And thine own threshold seem an alien thing 
And thy hearth fearful. Earth shall complain to 

thee. 
Then all things shall be haunted and the stones 
Shall falter words obscure, like men in dreams, 
Of things unguessed by thee. The dust shall utter 
A bright foreboding. Sound shall prophesy, 
The air grow thick with shapes unseen, thy hands 
Lay hold on wonder and thy heart shall break 
For mystery of this earth. But thou must be 
Unto thy kindred as a man unknown, 
Unheard of, in thy village, and thy words 
Explain thee to them never. I shall lie 
About thy spirit with my ancient mirth 
And vex thy soul in secret, disturbing thee 
With hurrying brightnesses that come and go 
And are not unto others, but to thee 
Obscure dull earth with beauty. Thou shalt sus- 
pect 
A presence in the solitude, a light 



1 66 SELENE 

Where no light is. This world shall be to thee 
A voice that cries ' Behold ! ' So all seen things 
Shall drive thee to my bosom, mine — that men 
Flee from in terror, hating me, the strong, 
The ancient, the eternal, the wide spread, 
The many-breasted mother, the Unseen ! 
Dreadful am I to them; yes, feared the most 
Of all the gods — whom Zeus from the beginning 
Made separate and supreme, relentless, fierce, 
The great avenger, scourger of men's souls, 
Flesh-eater ! Aye ! Me do they hate indeed. 
And they would slay me in my secret lair 
And smite me with sharp whips and bleed with 

swords 
And drive me to the market branded ' slave,' 
Me, the fierce Woman, mistress of living men ! 
This would they do and nudge each other and cry 
4 Well done ' to one another. 

But I am set 
Beyond the reach of hate. Not any sword, 
No, not the sharpest, can search out my breast 
Here in my silence where I sit and watch 
With my eternal laughter and disdain 
And scorn unspeakable. Justly they fear, 
For I am goddess of the bow and strike 
With my bright arrows all who know me not. 
Yes, with my darts pursue them till they pluck 



SELENE 167 

From out their breasts the bleeding barbs of sense 
And cast them underneath their feet and fall 
With faces in the dust crying, ' Pity us, 
Oh, Vanquisher of all things ! Ease in us 
Our sharp affliction, heal our wounds and take 
Thine anguish from us.' Them do I heal indeed. 
But those who see, yet heed not, being unwise, 
How this earth trembles and brightness ails and 

time 
Blows all things from us like a mist disturbed 
By silent air; all those that having perceived 
My dangerous presence have not sought with gifts 
My altar, and from consecrated urns 
Pour no libations of rich tears, I scourge 
With my sharp rods and I unleash my hounds 
And set them on them, dividing their frantic flesh, 
And drive them into Hell. For I am queen 
Of earth and of the shades, and of the gods 
The dark mysterious mother, and the dead 
Worship me in deep places. So I set 
My anguish on them, until they fill the air 
With lamentation and cast themselves abroad 
Like men who burn. But thou, Endymion, 
Hast sought me ever and art not afraid, 
Feeling earth reel beneath thee, seeing the rocks 
Soft as dissolving cloud and the strong hills 
Not more substantial than vague dreams when I 



1 68 SELENE 

Steal forth upon thee. Thou art not dismayed 
At my strange brightness when I lay my hand 
Upon the dust and turn to vanishings 
All that has pleased thee. Thou hast not turned 

away, 
Hiding thy face, for fear thou shouldst perceive 
My shrine, built in the air, that once being found 
Men worship me forever, and their flesh 
Floats from them like pale smoke. But I have 

seen 
How thou hast sought me, yearning unto me, 
And all things grow distasteful and thine eyes 
Weary of all things. I have watched thee ail 
Among thy kindred, seeing they have grown 
Alien to thee, not friendly to thy tears, 
Marvelling at thy laughter and at thy speech 
Nudging each other ; for thou seest cause 
For solitary mirth when in their eyes 
The tears are heaviest. Thou art cast down 
When they are brave with gladness. Beauty 

strange 
Comes on thee unaware and lures thee forth 
Under their very eyes to a far land 
That lies betwixt two breaths, and is as deep 
With hidden beauty as Olympian vales. 
Then seek me ever, where in a secret place 
I have for centuries waited, aye, all time 



SELENE 169 

Have waited for thee — virgin to the gods, 
Untouched, unseen of any. Hunt me forth ; 
Yes, spy upon me in my hiding place 
Behind the branched forests of the stars 
In my deep lairs of silence. I would be found, 
Yes, feel man's eyes upon me and a breath 
Laid on my eternal sweetness, richly chaste. 
Rend from me all the shadowy veils of sense 
That men in the beginning wrought for me 
In terror lest my loveliness, left bare, 
Should strike them dead. For I am beautiful, 
And to men's ways destruction, and to their flesh 
A menace always. Wherefore do I wear 
My robes of brightness, spun of gorgeous dyes, 
Woven of waters and pale stars and hills 
And lovely sky, and wrought with devious sound 
And weavings of dim music. Strip from me 
My mantle of the sun and moon and earth, 
Seasons and earthquakes and fierce thunderbolts, 
Heavy with deep mid ocean, soft with tears, 
Sweet colored with rich buds and mellow fruit, 
Aglow with mortal smiles and floating hair, 
And flashing with innumerable eyes. 
Rend it in twain. Lay hold on it, I say, 
For what ye dream is solid and stout earth, 
Is mine apparel, fluttering like smoke 
About mine inner fire. Oh, be swift, 



i 7 o SELENE 

And watchful with thy spirit, for on hills 
Invisible to man, in forests deep, 
Unthought of by the gods, I hunt men's souls, 
And rush upon them with sharp savage cries. 
Reach forth thy mighty hands and rend from me 
The mortal garment, hiding from thine eyes 
My deep immortal beauty. Unswathe the light. 
Then, then, Endymion, with what rich reward 
Shall I delight thee ? With what circumstance 
Shall I uplift thee to the eyes of the world, 
A flaming pillar set in a pillar of cloud ? 
This will I give to thee ; thou shalt be struck 
With blinding awfulness, and beauty fierce 
Consume with splendor every mortal dream 
From thy soul's tissue. Thou shalt sink unsaved 
From anguish into anguish. Yes, shall drift 
Like spiritual ashes in a wind of flame. 
But when I see thee cleansed with beauty, fresh 
As tenderest mist of morning, mild as dew, 
With wisdom infantile, helpless as cloud, 
Lovely as starry water, beneath mine eyes 
A placid well that knows not anything 
Save to be bright ; then will I shine on thee. 
Thou shalt receive my beauty in thy soul 
As the clear lake accepts the radiant moon ; 
And I will lead thee to a pleasant land 
Whose greener vales no eye has ever seen." 



SELENE 171 

But now Endymion stretched his mighty arms 
Up to the starry heavens and the hills 
And to the whirling clouds and cried aloud : 
u How shall I rend this earth in twain or snatch 
From thy pure being the sky with all its suns, 
And its strong meteors ? How shall I strip from 

thee 
The mountains and the violence of wars, 
And human breath and mortal loveliness, 
Woven with spells ! Magical ! Beautiful ! 
How shall I rid thee of it ? Should I slay 
Thousands of doves, nature would have a mind 
To breed again innumerable wings. 
Shall I stab water at its source ? Unweave 
The solid earth beneath me ? With what sword 
Shall I divide the sky and with what chains 
Bind into slavery the snow-white cloud ? 
Oh, what is man that he should rend the earth 
And tear its webs of splendor ? Yet on me 
Has this desire fallen ! I must turn 
To ways unheard of and with spiritual hands 
Unswathe the veils that hide thee, goddess strange, 
Loved always, terrible. Wherefore I say, 
Ye sights and sounds of earth, I will deny 
Your presence to my spirit. I will forbid 
Touch to my hands and vision to mine eyes. 
Yes, I will lift my radiant senses up, 



172 SELENE 

Burning with sweetest odors at thy shrine, 

Like golden vials, to be filled by thee. 

Thee will I worship only. Never more 

Shall my thought covet earthly loveliness 

That is thy vesture, but my will shall turn 

My spirit to things spiritual. I will rend 

Thy mortal garment, hiding from mine eyes 

Thy deep immortal beauty. Lift the veil 

And from thy secret brightness, unswathe the light. 

Then lead me forth into a pleasant land 

Whose greener vales no man has ever seen." 

But ere his words were done, upon his eyes 

A flaming spirit rushed, wearing a shape 

Of virgin nothingness, whose whiteness shone 

Like frost on fire. She was beautiful 

Beyond men's prayers for beauty, and she drew 

Her silvery flesh out of the starlit air 

And her cold sweetness from the midnight dew. 

Virginal was she, loveliest, austere 

With visible purity. A godlike love 

Swathed her soft shape in plumes of snow-white 

flame, 
And unto him she cried " Endymion, 
What hast thou sworn ? Behold how in a shape 
I come to thee and out of substance weave 
A visible semblance for thee of my soul. 
My flesh is breathed out of the glittering air 



SELENE 173 

And fragrance of the night. I come to thee 

With beauty terrible — to the gods austere — 

But unto thee on fire with love. Lo now, 

Shall I not tempt thee from my own soul's plea, 

I — that am in her image, beautiful ? 

Wilt thou refuse me ? Shall my splendor ail 

Before thee and my loveliness blow out 

Before thy blindness like a midnight gale ? 

Lo now — I am embodied, lord, for thee, 

Of sight and sound and sweetest, shyest earth. 

Wilt thou forswear my visible loveliness 

For my far spirit, consuming and unseen ? 

Me thou canst master ! Me thou needst not fear 

For all my fearful shining ! Me thou canst drive 

Before thee like a slave, humbled and bright, 

Meek with afflicted beauty. Thou canst scourge 

My magic powers to do thy will and I 

Shall have no word before thee but to cry 

4 Master ' beneath thy hand. 

But She, my bright 
And Heavenly Spirit, thou canst not subdue, 
But she will rule thee always, and thou shalt be 
Helpless before her. While the moment waits, 
Wilt thou deny me, whom the gods in vain 
Have wooed on high Olympus ? Chase me, I say — 
Hunt me, as she has hunted thee, with hounds. 
Heed not my godlike screams when in the vales 



174 SELENE 

I run from thee in terror lest thy breath 
Shall burn my hurrying whiteness as it flees. 
Rush on me, seize me, rend me with thy hands — 
Streak me with blood and cast me on the ground 
Throbbing beneath thine eyes like a white hind 
Slain by the hunter. Then thou shalt comfort 

me — 
And lift me to thy bosom, of fleetness shorn, 
As a wild bird of wings, and pitying 
My godlike terror, with thy mighty arms 
Bind my deep pantings back into my breast." 
But when Endymion saw how beautiful 
She paled before him, poised in the air 
Like music amid silvery strings, he cried, 
" Oh Divine Ghost, that from an invisible shrine 
Communed with me in secret, save me ! Save 
My helpless spirit from thy beauty seen. 
Oh not with wrath avenge thy semblance cast 
Forth from thy vision, if I shake thy dews 
Of mortal sweetness, hissing among flames 
Of sacrificial fire ! Oh sight ! Oh sound ! 
Oh Beauty seen, begone ! For I am sworn 
To one invisible ! " . . . 
Then from the savage precincts of mid-air 
Rose laughter of disdain and ghost-like tones 
That uttered things unspeakable and strange. 
And the Shape wavered like a snow-white cloud 



SELENE 175 

Dispersed at morning. Fearfully she shone, 

Out of a brightly changing vapor. Then 

Her starry presence melted on the gale 

And her pale substance mingled with the stream. 

But at Endymion's feet in ruin lay 

All of earth's beauty, and the watchful nymphs 

Wept in their fastness. Brightness had withered. 

Shape 
Was crumbled into dust. From leaf and bough 
And star and hill and sky, the glory waned. 
All of earth's splendor, beating round about, 
Fell back before his sightless eyes as foam, 
Dashed from the sharp rocks, sinks into the sea. 
All things whereon his eyes that night had gazed 
With mortal longing, lay about his feet 
Like planets dead, while he, obscured with dream, 
Seemed gazing on some inner thing. The earth 
Smoked palely forth in curling wreaths. The rocks 
Swam dizzily. The solid mountains gleamed 
Like the unsteady sea. Upon the air 
Melodious ashes blew of music burned. 
Then did he stand like a god blackened and 

charred 
Amid the ruins of the world, transfixed 
By things invisible but unto him 
Visible now forever. Only once 
He seemed like one in traps of anguish snared. 



176 SELENE 

His introspective eyes, in a far place, 
Fought battles with fierce visions and laid hold 
Of spiritual horror, nameless and unknown 
To any man on earth. His body wept 
Great drops of living tears and his pale flesh 
Quivered, as if upon an altar lone, 
They had stretched him bare amid a fire to burn. 
Once, in the silence, great Endymion groaned. 
Then did the nymphs with their pure eyes dis- 
cern 
Another world grow visible. It gleamed 
Upon the circling vapors of stout earth 
With sudden brightnesses of tower and dome. 
Great blazing cities changed upon the gale. 
Fair courts and blossoming gardens, lovelier groves 
Than had by mortal eyes been seen. The night 
Was full of rushing gods, whose large white feet 
Sloped up the midnight gale. Bright swarms of 

eyes 
Flashed in the air like multitudinous stars. 
Prophetic voices screamed upon the wind. 
Then from a place, beyond all countries far, 
Beyond all beauty, beautiful — a land 
Of pleasantness divine, a land unseen — 
There came a godlike and exalted cry 
And a great voice proclaimed " Endymion ! " 
But on the bank beside the glittering lake 



SELENE 177 

Sank great Endymion, his limbs, moon-charmed, 
Stretched in the moss. And the moon sunk and 

day- 
Reddened — and lo — out of the glen stole forth 
Full many a silent-footed wondering nymph 
To watch his dreaming loveliness. For now 
His blossoming splendor breathed such fragrance 

sweet 
As divine roses yield. His body seemed 
Like garlands of cool flowers lightly twined 
About a heavenly fountain of clear flame. 
His chasted substance shaped of burning snow 
Shone rose and silver. For a godlike change 
Had come on him in slumber and he lay 
In youth eternal, exquisite with dream. 
Now from his spirit ever and anon 
A ghostly beauty floated into sight 
And like a lily in a lake moon-pale 
Swam in the placid silence of his smile. 
Then did the nymph who hovered near his sleep 
Cry to the dryads, " 'T is Selene's kiss." 
Now from his shape divinest odors rose 
As if a golden casket set in flames 
Breathed out sweet vapors on a shrine. Warm 

shades 
Hovered about him, tender hues obscure 
And mothlike splendors of invisible wings 



178 SELENE 

Whereby men's eyes had never yet been pleased. 

Now from the lyre of his exalted flesh 

Music exhaled, unutterably strange. 

Now from his secret fountains of delight 

The radiant smiles up welled and then the nymph 

Feared not to lean her cold and virgin mouth 

And sip the scarlet bubble from his lips. 

All nature fed on him. She cried, " Behold — 

Thou fount of golden loveliness ! thou spring 

Of silvery sweetness flowing ! thou basin bright 

Wherein life pours with solemn melodies 

The music of her waters ! let me drink 

Of thy immortal presence and not die." 

But when a goat-herd, wondering that his flocks 

Were prospered and that they each night returned, 

Their udders plenteous with fragrant milk 

And with such odors clinging to their flanks 

It seemed the nymphs had dressed them with. 

sweet wreaths, 
Sought out the pastures, wandering at dusk, 
And in the moonlight stole upon the glen 
And saw Endymion lying and beheld 
Him beautiful with slumber and alone, 
Solemn as alabaster, as austere, 
Effigied on the silent tomb of night ; 
Carved in the magic marble of pale sleep ; 
And saw the unearthly splendor of the grove, 



SELENE 179 

How dark and deep and radiant its trees 
Swathed in the mystic terror of the night ; 
How shadowed with black grapes or glowing pale 
With amber-colored grapes ; and saw strange 

fruits 
Strewn on the ground as if invisible boughs 
Had shed their glories at his feet and saw 
How from the bee-loved crevices of rock 
Streamed the warm honey ; and beheld his herd 
Crop the deep grass whereon Endymion 
Had shed the fertile shadow of his sleep ; 
He was affrighted, and stealing silently 
Out of that grove, god-haunted, he went his way 
Back to the village and there he told strange things, 
So that thereafter if a herd grew fat 
They said, " It is Endymion's." And that land 
Was prospered like the secret vales that lie 
In the footholds of Olympus, and they knew 
The river of Endymion's sacred sleep 
Had overflowed the valley and blessed its fruits 
And made its harvests bountiful. 

But when, 
Once and again, some vision-haunted youth 
Would seek the glens and forests and alone 
Commune with the high gods, they warned him, 

saying, 
" Be thou content with thine own kind. At home, 



180 SELENE 

Love thine own thatch and at a quiet hearth 
Grow old like us, in peace, knowing not much,, 
But living as men live, and at the last 
Dying as men die, underneath a roof. 
Commune not with the gods. They give to thee 
Strange gifts and alien and on thee will bring 
A doom unhuman." 

Thus spake they, of their kind,. 
In the small village, fearing the unseen. 



THE WEDDING FEAST 

PART I 

Oh who art thou — thou fearful guest — 
Too burning bright, too strangely fair ? 
u / am the daemon of unrest, 

From the kingdom of the air." 

Brightness, I bid thee from my door. 
Off! off! I say, with spur and goad! 
" / have come" he cried, " to drive the bride 
Over a lonely road." 

But where ? But where ? In earth or air 
Where would ye hurry me ? 
u To a bright place we must repair 
Where She would have us be. 

" Her power this night is on us both, 
And I am sent by Her. 
Pale wandering shape, thou shalt obey 
Her flaming messenger." 

Oh let me be for a single night. 
For a single night, lord, let me be. 



1 82 THE WEDDING FEAST 

The torch is lit, the feast is bright, 
My love has come to marry me ! 

" / cannot wait for a single night I 
Her voice calls. We must be gone ! 
Her feast is set with lovelier light 
And She is whiter than the sun" 



Oh let me be for a mortal hour, 
For a mortal hour, lord, let me be, 
That I may bring my lover the wine 
And that he may break the bread with me. 

" / cannot wait for a mortal hour. 
Her splendor calls us from afar. 
She fain would sup from a living cup 
Her radiant hands have lifted up 
Like the brightness of a star." 

Oh let me be for a breath of time, 

For a breath of time, lord, let me be. 

I shall run more warm through cold and storm 

If my love has given a kiss to me. 

" I cannot wait for a breath of time. 
There *s many a league for us to run, 
Through brake, through mire, 



THE WEDDING FEAST 183 

Through frost, through fire, 
To Her palace of the sun." 

What shall I do in her palace bright ? 
Why should she bid me there ? 
" Love waits outside Her door to-night 
In Her citadel of air. 

" Unto Her breast He fain would come, 
But Him She will not see, 
Unless the bread She sets for Him 
Shall of thy body be." 

She is a witch, bright as the devil. 
She shall not lay her spells on me. 
She is a bubble, blown of evil, 
Pale foam of an unholy sea. 

" She lifts a goblet from her breast. 
Like a star She holds it up. 
She will not bid Him in to feast 
Unless thy soul is in the cup." 

Witches' feet shall never tread 
From my soul its precious wine. 
Her Love shall not go comforted 
With holy blood of mine ! 



1 84 THE WEDDING FEAST 

" Her lips shall never be the throne 
Whereon shall rule Her great Love's kiss 
Unless I snatch thee from thine own 
And whirl thee through the dark abyss. 

" If She lose what She desires 
Her sufferings will be more than human. 
She is wrought of Heavenly fires , 
Greater than any mortal woman. 

" She would ravage wide and high, 
Dashed from Her orbit out of space. 
Meteors should not burn the sky 
More than the stars Her face" 

Then let her lose and let her bear 
Alone her strange and mighty grief. 
I will not shed a single tear 
To bring her soul relief. 

" Thou wilt not ? Nay — beneath Her eyes 
Thou art a helpless creature. 
She is the music of the skies 
And thou art wanton nature." 

Is she of the land of faery, 

That she should be so brightly cruel, 



THE WEDDING FEAST 185 

In a ghostlike palace airy, 

Cloud built, set with many a jewel ? 

Is she charmed and is she spelled ? 

Is she of magic softly woven ? 

I will pray to my Lord God. 

He shall rule her with his rod, 

The way betwixt us twain be cloven. 

" She is charmed and She is spelled. 
She is not of the land of faery. 

Yes — She is brightly cruel — 
Ghostlike, in a palace airy, 
Set with stars like many a jewel. 

Pray to thy Lord God. 
She is of such wild magic woven 
He will not rule Her with His rod 
Nor shall the road to Her be cloven" 

Oh goblin bright, thou fierce-eyed sprite, 
I fear thee with thy spur and goad ! 
" / am Her Will that drives thy fight 
On Her appointed road." 

But who is she whose magic will 
Seems such a fearful thing ? 
Tell her I rule my kingdom still, 
The daughter of a king. 



1 86 THE WEDDING FEAST 

" Thy kingdom is of sea and land, 
Unstable as the glittering wind. 
She rules thy nature with Her hand 
In the kingdom of the mind" 

Who is she and what is she, 
That I should follow as night the noon ? 
" She is deeper than the sky 
And taller than the fire-white moon, 

" The sunsets of the eternal years 
Yield unto Her their mellow wines. 
The sunrise of all living spheres 
Her breast incarnadines." 

I hate her that she shines so bright. 
I hate her for her elfin dower. 
I hate her that she rules this night 
With an unearthly power. 

Who is she and what is she, 
Thou blazing, bright, mysterious elf? 
" She is the empress over thee — 
Thy deep, eternal Self 

"As time from out the skies shall thresh 
The stars with all their ancient fires, 



THE WEDDING FEAST 187 

She bids me scourge from out thy flesh 
The throbbing of its deep desires, 

" Wherefore beware ! Wherefore beware ! 
Her will upon this night be done. 
I'll drive thee forth into the air 
And we will dart into the sun." 



PART II 

With fires bedight that magic sprite 
Leaped upon my back to ride. 
He was a creature fierce and bright. 
He struck his spurs into my side. 

"Oh leave me to my mortal mirth ! 
I am afraid of that bright spirit. 
I am too young to quit this earth. 
Nay, let me this sweet earth inherit. 

u If I should gaze upon her face 
A fearful change on me would come. 
Then I should be estranged with grace, 
An alien in my home. 

"When at the hearth I drive my loom 
And my love gazes in my eyes, 



1 88 THE WEDDING FEAST 

He will see powers and thrones and doom 
And suns and stars and ancient skies. 

" Then, when he reaches for my hands, 
No smallness will he comfort there, 
But he will touch the seas, the lands, 
The seasons and the throbbing air. 

" When from her splendor I return 
And in the flesh dwell once again, 
Too mystic warm my heart shall burn 
To please the hearts of men. 

" Unearthly bright my brow would gleam 
To them that hate all brightness still. 
My laughing calm to them would seem 
Like snow upon a hill. 

" They would resent my high emprise, 
My haunted speech, my echoing mien. 
I could not shake from out mine eyes 
The visions they had seen. 

" I should be charged with errands high, 
Strange roads should bind my speeding feet. 
Then I should be a voice, a cry, 
A portent in the street. 



THE WEDDING FEAST 189 

" I fear her call. I fear her face. 
I fear the silent, shining change. 
They will stone me in the market place 
For uttering lovely things and strange ! 

" But oh, not they, with living whips, 
Shall scourge from me my folded wings, 
Nor burn with flames from off my lips 
Murmurs of dread ecstatic things. 

"But yet, abhorring when I go 
With gracious gifts, sweet as the sky, 
They in the dust will lay me low, 
And at the last will crucify. 

"Lord, let me keep these eyes that weep, 
This heart that breaks, these wounds to bind, 
These limbs that leap, that dance, that sleep, 
And nearness to my kind ! " 

He laughed aloud, as in a cloud 
A meteor beats and clings. 
So in my thought his voice was wrought. 
He flashed his bright, melodious wings. 

" Too late ! Too late ! Thou canst not choose. 
She calls thee from Her radiant spheres. 



190 THE WEDDING FEAST 

What thou dost now with tears refuse 
To-night thou shalt beseech with tears, 

" For thou must come to Her with blood, 
Purged brightly clean with mightiest griefs 
With chastened longing and a mood 
Humble beyond belief. 

" / 7/ show thee many an empty sight. 
Through many a void shalt thou run, 
Until thou wai lest for the light 
In the city of the sun. 

" Until, deep panting for the light, 
Thou lay est down thy mortal nature. 
Then shalt thou be transformed and bright, 
Eternal and angelic creature." 



PART III 

That god rode forth upon my mind. 
He perched upon my affrighted wit, 
As meteors bristling in the wind 
Amid their shining plumage sit. 

I felt his glance around me stream. 
His flaming hair flew over me. 



THE WEDDING FEAST 191 

His eyes laid hold upon my dream 
And made me see as he did see. 

When like great steeds appalled at night 
My astonished eyes would rear and run, 
He set his bit upon my sight 
And made it drive into the sun. 

He scourged it down into the dust. 
He drove it down into the stone. 
It ran as ridden creatures must 
On magic journeys bound alone. 

With blood and sweat my wits were wet. 
He raced them through a solid wall. 
It was a dream I might forget, 
A dimness that was not at all. 

A soft, a pale, a silent thing, 
My face did cleave and set it by, 
And underneath its cloudy wing 
I heard its separate atoms sing 
Like the great stars in the sky. 

For what is large and what is small 

To spiritual eyes ? 
The great Lord careth not at all 
For the dream that men call size. 



192 THE WEDDING FEAST 

But what thou dost, that art thou. Lo, 

The atoms that rehearse 
Their orbits in the stone are vast 

As an aeoned universe. 

The pebble has a curious will 
That in my hand doth lie. 

It seems as motionless and still 
As the zenith in the sky. 

It seems to make not any sound. 

It does not hum nor sing. 
It keeps a helpless simple round 

Yet is a fearful thing. 

Its molecules weave in and out, 
They leap, they plunge, they dive. 
Up from dark gulfs they whirl about 
As if they were alive. 

They live, they dance, they burn, they die, 
Their Judgment Days draw on apace ! 
Between their smallest atoms lie 
Oceans of darkest space. 

Those atoms ache, they groan, they quake, 
They hiss, they plunge, they roar ! 



THE WEDDING FEAST 193 

And I that hold a silent stone 
Lift up a living war. 

It does not burst, it does not shake, 
Nor fly dispersed in grains of sand. 
Its shape is folded over it, 

Like a divine great hand. 

It is the hand that lies so still ! 

It never sets them by. 
A shape serene, but under it 
Those whirling atoms dance and flit 
Like the quick stars in the sky ! 

This earth, it is not as it seems. 

It is the strangest place ! 
Once did I run on solid stones, 

But now I trod on space. 

On empty gulfs of space trod I ! 

Worlds were beneath my feet, 
And many a brightly speeding sky 

And heaven spreaded sweet. 

"Thou magic sprite, fearfully bright, 
Now have I wandered far. 
What are these gulfs of roaring night 



i 9 4 THE WEDDING FEAST 

Wherein whirls many a flaming star ? ' 
" Substance, before thy mortal sight, 
Shows all things as they are" 

" What is this world so green, so fair, 
That hovers brightly over me ? " 

" // is the atom in the air 
Too small for human eyes to see, 

" Behold, its forests and its lakes, 
Its mountains and its rugged scars, 
And like a bristling mane it shakes 
Lights of innumerable stars. 

"It has its sunrise beautiful 
On shining mountains morning pale. 
And many a praying temple stands 
In many a quiet vale. 

" Its magic towns are brightly set 
Amid the spacious air. 
Tour heavy earth is the varying breeze 

That sweetly hovers there, 
Tour mountains and your solid seas 
To them are purest air. 

" Their casements open on the gale 
But none of them are seen. 



THE WEDDING FEAST 195 

Another earth, another sky, 
Strange gardens sweetly green ! 

11 No siege to them was ever laid. 
Unseen their bulwarks are. 
With gulf s of nearness are they stayed 
As distance stays the star." 

" You cannot see their flashing eyes. 
Their songs and prayers you cannot hear. 
Oh they seem further than the skies 
Because they are so near. 

" A world within your world doth lie, 
Midden from mortal men. 
Another world in that is furled 

And a thousand worlds again" 

The solid air around me there 
Heaved like a roaring ocean. 
And far and wide on every side 
I saw the smoking planets ride 
In waves of angry motion. 

All faces of all living men 

Among those waves did glide, 

A moment palely floated, then 
Were gulfed amid the tide. . 



196 THE WEDDING FEAST 

Amid the gleaming, swimming sea 
I saw my love drift dimly by. 
" Oh lure him up, bright sprite, to me, 
Or I of grief shall die. 

" Out of this fluid flashing earth 
Let one thing solid be. 
His beauteous body that God made, 
Lord, let it comfort me. 

" I reach to thee with my hands, my love. 
On lightnings I lay hold ; 
On clouds and citadels and domes 
And kingdoms dark and old. 

" Through unseen flesh of secret tribes 
That no man's eyes may see,* ' 
Through wrath and hate and love and death 
I lay my hands on thee." 

I touched his garment and it seemed 
A mantle wrought of cosmic pain ! 
Of sighing worlds and dying moons 
And many a stellar hurricane. 

For he was clothed in day and night, 
And aching chills and chaos cold, 



THE WEDDING FEAST 197 

And groaning worlds and mortal blight 
And all things terrible and old. 
Then was I far that would be near, 
And substance was a fearful thing. 
I was appalled and full of fear, 
That was the daughter of a king. 

I plunged to him through whirling night. 
The stars, the times, I swept aside. 
Once more, upon his bosom bright, 
I lay, his own anointed bride. 

" Oh, let me kiss his lips once more, 
His sweet lips, or I die. 
So near they are no gulf, no star 
Betwixt our breaths shall lie.'* 

" Nearness, thou art a fearful thing, 
And no man sails thy ghostly tide, 
But angels with a flaming wing 

On thy strange gulfs can glide. 
Spirits, that walk on shining feet, 

Can reach the other side. 
Across the ocean will we float. 
Thy kiss shall be a living boat ! " 

My radiant daemon cried. 
" My eyes shall leave a fiery trail, 



198 THE WEDDING FEAST 

My spread wings be thy bellying sail y 
I will be thy guide" 

His face gleamed palely at my prow, 
His spread wings were my sails. 
His screaming voice bestrid the air 
As a meteor rides the gales. 
His glances streamed about my sides, 

With light they burnished me, 
Among the sails and in and out 
His hovering vision flew about 

As bright as it could be. 

" What is this ocean, goblin bright, 
This silent, smooth and crimson sea ? 
I have sailed all day and sailed all night. 
Is there no port to left or right 

Where I might harbored be ? " 

Above the prow, with happy brow, 
I saw that radiant daemon shine : 
" This is that nearness that divides 

Thy true love's lips from thine* 

" What is great and what is small ? 
What is near and what is far ? 
Unto the Lord that made us all 
The mote is equal to the star" 



THE WEDDING FEAST 199 

"What is this shore to which I come, 
Where sunrise reddens into day ? 
It seems a sweet and pleasant home 
Where a wanderer might stay. 

" Laughing folks move to and fro, 
A gentle tribe are they. 
The flutes they sing, the pipes they blow, 
The harps they sweetly play ! 

" Upon my prow they lay their hands, 
They draw me swiftly to the shore. 
What are these heavenly happy lands 
Where no man ever was before ? 

" They twine their garlands on my prow. 
They clothe me in a garment fair. 
With laughing flowers they crown my brow, 
Then into happy vales repair.' ' 

The goblin spoke — that fierce-eyed sprite — 
He swayed me with his spell : 
" These are thy gardens of delight 
That in his lips do dwell. 

Through many a Heaven shalt thou rove 

In the mystic flesh of him you love. 
And many a fearful Hell. 



o THE WEDDING FEAST 

u His mortal flesh, it is a mesh 

Of worlds and space and time. 
A universe, it doth rehearse 
Old chronicles sublime. 

" Made in the image of the Lord, 

Of moons and stars and suns, 
And round about and in and out 
His Heavenly nature runs. 

" And thou art lit into a star 

That on his lip doth flame. 
But yet thou art so far — more far 

Than the world from which you came? 

Amazed, I gazed upon the ground. 

I looked upon the air. 
White clouds were floating in the sky 

And the wind was everywhere. 

44 Why did they greet me when I came 
And garland me their queen ? " 

44 His substance is thy living land, 
Thy sacred own demesne" 

44 Thou magic sprite, thou goblin bright, 
These sweet vales blossom so, 



THE WEDDING FEAST 201 

And forth to gather garlands green 

The men and maidens go. 
The flutes they sing, the harps they play, 

The pipes they sweetly blow ! 

u // is the joy of his hearty 

That keeps perpetual Spring. 
In him lies furled full many a worlds 

And all rise up to sing. 
They all rise up to sing — to sing — 

Meadow and hill and lea ! 
His body glows like a sweet new rose 

Because he dreams of thee " 

" Thou fierce-eyed sprite, daemonic, bright, 
The singing season goes. 
A barren waste, a faded tree, 
And withering of the rose ! 

"The maidens with their flowering wreaths 
Are shedding bitter tears. 
Their eyes that laughed, their mouths that sang, 
Are nebulous with years." 

" It is the passion that devours 
That eats his flesh away. 
His youthful gardens glowing green 



02 THE WEDDING FEAST 

Are blasted with decay. 
Where once they kept their festival, 

Lo now, the bloodhounds bay, 
And in his sweetest pastures rove 

The wild-eyed beasts of prey. 
This hast thou done that lured too far 

The urgence of the clay." 

" The earth is cracked, the sea runs dry, 
The mountains sink into the ground ! " 

" // is the wreckage of his flesh 
From his spirit's grievous wound." 

" Whence came these priests with eyes austere ? 
They lay on me their hands. 
See — I am bled with cruel gyves 
And bound with sullen bands." 

u Their ancient god in angry mood 
Looks down on thee with wrathful eyes, 
Until on altars red with blood 
Thou art the sacrifice." 

" Who is that ancient god ? " . . . 

" His Soul, 
The great, the high, the superhuman ! 
He is beautiful and far. 



THE WEDDING FEAST 203 

He is throned upon a star, 
Waiting for a mystic IVoman." 

" Master of light, thou daemon bright, 

Now dawns the Judgment Day ! 
The earth that once did shine so bright 

Is withered all away. 
The earth and air and all the skies 

Are folded up like scrolls, 
And from the pit in which they cry 

Comes the wailing of lost souls." 

"// is the wrath his Spirit feels 

For what His flesh has done. 
He turns to a diviner feast 

In the city of the sun. 
In lovelier lands thou canst not see 

He seeks a cosmic bride. 
Beneath Her face He gathers grace y 

He casts His flesh aside. 

" For thou art Eve and thou dost tempt 
And lead astray since time began. 
But She is Mary and brings forth 
The perfect Man." 

" But who is she and what is she, 
Thou blazing, bright, mysterious elf? " 



2o 4 THE WEDDING FEAST 

" She is the empress over thee^ 
Thy deep eternal Self. 

" Throughout thy flesh He seeks Her face. 
Her lips He fain would kiss. 
Wherefore He runs through roaring suns 
And many a dark abyss." 

" Thou magic sprite, daemonic, bright, 
Lay then on me thy goad ! 
For if he seeks her face to-night 
I will pursue the self-same road. 

" Through moon and sun I '11 run. I '11 rove 
Through solid earth and flumes of fire ! 

But I will be his only love, 
My breast, the end of his desire." 

" Then shalt thou search through thine own flesh, 
Thou shalt not find Him there ! 
For lo, *t is an enchanted mesh 
Woven of unearthly air" 

That goblin bright, that fierce-eyed sprite, 

Loud and long laughed he. 
He laid his bit upon my sight 
And made me see as he did see. 



THE WEDDING FEAST 205 

The atoms of my body stirred, 

Chanting cosmic tunes. 
Through gulfs of time they wheeled and veered 
Or through deep spaces dipped and steered, 

Like great white separate moons. 

In the caverns of my brain 
I saw fierce planets whirl and dip, 
Burn in the hollow of my hand 
Or slide along my finger tip. 

Where once my flesh was wont to be, 

Great comets swept their fearful wars. 

My bone, it shone with fires and seas, 

My body shook with stars. 

Sunsets with gold and scarlet crest 
Through my flesh did gleam, did glide ; 
Through flashing hair and swimming breast, 
Melting forehead and trembling side. 

" Brightness, I see a shape that runs. 
I see it sink ! I see it rise ! 
Sometimes it clings to gorgeous suns 
And now it drowns in dizzy skies." 

" Thee He searches through and through^ 
Every world that in thee lies. 



206 THE WEDDING FEAST 

Seeking for a Heavenly Woman 
In an ancient Paradise" 



"But who is she whose spirit face 
Appears to him so fair, so high ? 
Is she clothed in deeper grace ? 
Is she more beautiful than I ? " 

" She is enthroned on high — afar. 
Moons are wreathed about Her brow. 
She shines brightlier than a star. 
She is more beautiful than thou" 

" Who is she and what is she, 
In her citadel of air ? 
Where can her secret bosom be, 
That I may stab her, heavenly fair ? " 

" She is hid in a palace of light, 
Deeper than the midmost sky. 
If thou shouldst wound Her breast to-night, 
Swiftly, swiftly, wouldst thou die." 

" Who is she ? . . . What is she ? 

Thou blazing, bright, mysterious elf! " 
" She is the empress over thee, 
Thy deep eternal self 



THE WEDDING FEAST 207 

"He follows Her through cloud and star. 
He follows Her through death and dream, 
Into a land lovely and far! 
Her kingdom holy 
Is lit with a spiritual gleam. 

" With blessed food They shall be fed, 
In Her citadel divine. 
Thy flesh shall be the immortal bread, 
Thy soul — the everlasting wine." 

"Let me gaze upon her face 
That is so beautiful, so far. 
Let me behold her blinding grace 
Throned upon her midmost star. 

"I will rend her with my hands — 
Hostile, bright, fearfully high. 
I will wound her where she stands. 
Then swiftly, swiftly, let me die." 

" Beware ! Beware ! I say beware ! 
Her eyes shall burn thee like the sun. 
She is fierce and She is fair, 
Her will upon this night be done" 



208 THE WEDDING FEAST 

PART IV 

What strange pavilions builded bright 

Shine in the upper air! 
Scourged with sharp rods of living light, 

How swiftly was I there! 

She was more radiant than the noon, 
More innocent than the gentlest sky, 
Taller than the fire-white moon ! 
She was more beautiful than I. 

Her garments, blown about my breast, 
Were music in my heart and brain. 
They were more exquisite than rest, 
More terrible than pain. 

Before God's eyes She met Her mate. 
Not yet They throbbed with single bliss. 
Their silent lips, austere, elate, 
Dreamed of the great forbidden kiss. 

" Never, never shall it be! 

They shall not go comforted, 
Until They strain Their wine of thee, 
And eat thee for Their daily bread. 



THE WEDDING FEAST 

" If They lose what They desire, 
Greater than mortal man or woman, 

They shall be dispersed in fire. 
Their sufferings shall be superhuman" 

All about on every side 
I saw the blazing planets go. 
Ashes of Judgment Days did ride 

On gales as white as snow. 

Many a laughing Paradise 
Stricken in the air did ail, 
And many a spent and anguished moon 
Blackened the midnight gale. 

Each to each with grievous cry, 
Withered from its living mesh, 
And well I knew that they were I, 
The weavings of my mortal flesh. 

She could not rule them with desire 
Nor bid them from their eternal pain, 
Until my breath had blown the fire 
By which they should be purged again. 

"Lay me in Her altar flame, 
Thou blazing, bright, mysterious elf* 



209 



THE WEDDING FEAST 

She is the empress over me, 
My deep eternal Self. 

"Splendor, let me be Thy wine, 
Crimson, in a starry cup. 
Let me be Thy drink divine. 
Pour me forth and drink me up. 

" Seize me, Splendor, where I stand ! 
On my substance be Thou fed. 
Break me with Thy radiant hand — 
Anguished and nutritious bread. 

"Then no more, not any more, 
Shall I hate and worship Thee ! 
But Thy kiss, shaped of my death, 
Be the utter end of me. 

" In Thy citadel of air — 
Fearful art Thou, like the sun. 
Thou art fierce and Thou art fair! 
Thy Will upon this night be done." 

PART V 

At last from dreamless sleep I came, 
The seeds of fire were in my eyes. 



THE WEDDING FEAST 211 

I seemed to come from blood and flame 
As from a sacrifice. 

Oh in that sleep where had I been, 
What fearful pathways had I trod? 
What had I done ? What had I seen ? 
That I should feel so near to God ! 

Upon an altar had I lain. 
With snow-white fire they wrapped me round. 
I can remember that vast pain, 
Spiritual, profound. 

For centuries in a speechless place 
I was a spent and anguished thing. 
They drifted flame upon my face. 
I was a sacred offering. 

I waked — and peace was in my eyes, 
And happiness did me enfold; 
A single sleep had made me wise, 
Serene, immeasurably old. 

My mortal dream I had laid by 
And no desire had I now. 
Wrapped in eternal calm was I 
And peace was throned upon my brow. 



THE WEDDING FEAST 

Strange was the place where I had been. 
It seemed to me like deepest Hell. 
Lo, now I glistened, brightly clean, 
Detached, immutable, and well. 

And oh, I was not any more 
As I had been, unhappy, human, 
But beauteous as I was before, 
Greater than any mortal woman. 

The sunsets of the eternal years 
Poured forth for me their mellow wine. 
I felt the sunrise of the spheres 
My breast incarnadine. 

All abroad, on every side, 
Singing stars did shine and beat, 
And they were messengers of joy 
On beautiful swift feet. 

Then with my looks I bade them move 
With laughter down the sweet blue years, 
And they were globed of loveliest love, 
Roseate and angelic spheres. 

Each to each did cry and sing 
Out of their bright melodious mesh. 



THE WEDDING FEAST 

And lo — I knew each laughing star 
Was spun into my earthly flesh. 

Beautiful, before my eyes 
Strangest light they did receive. 
Orbs of sweetest Paradise ! 
Gardens where God walked at eve ! 

For I was come into a place 

Wherefrom all things are wrought. 
I shaped my body forth in space 

In myriad orbs of thought. 

Upon the earth, in her father's hall, 
I saw a simple maiden stand. 
A thousand worlds, I held them all, — 
Her mystic body, — in my hand. 

Sweetly to me my great Love came. 
"Love, I have waited long," He said. 
I poured for Him the mystic wine. 
He gave me white angelic bread. 

Then did we glow with rapture high ! 
We felt a deep, ethereal bliss. 
He laid me on His breast. I gave 
To my great Love, a holy kiss. 



213 



2i 4 THE WEDDING FEAST 

PART VI 

No more — no more — not any more 
Those daemon eyes were bent on me. 
I was a maid as I was before. 
My love had come to marry me. 

They knew not of my spirit's flight, 
Guessed not my starry wandering. 
The torch was lit, the feast was bright, 
For the daughter of the king. 

In at the door my true love came. 
Trembling, I looked into his eyes. 
I saw the stars of memory flame, 
Eternal as the skies. 

I cried, " When I abroad did rove 
You saw me shine, exalted, strange. 
Lo now, the miracle of love — 
In me, — a silent, shining change. 

u Forevermore my wings must reach 
And in fair skies must brightly spread. 
My mouth must utter beauteous speech, 
And stars must shine above my head. 



THE WEDDING FEAST 215 

" A change has come on me. Mine eyes 
Are spiritual and I must see 
Another world and stranger skies 
Than ever used to be. 

" Nothing is now as once it seemed 
Before I ran with the daemon bright. 
Beauty has out of terror streamed, 
All in a single night ! " 

I cried, " What change has come on death, 
That I no more corruption see, 

But breathe a keener breath ? 

It is a change in me ! 

I have grown ethereal, 

Exalted, immaterial, 
Wiser and merrier than I used to be. 

" When I regard the church-yard dust 
And touch the grain of dead men's bones, 
My sight, as spirit vision must, 

Sinks through the melting stones. 

" I seem to hear upon the air 
A sweet, a multitudinous sound ! 
Ten thousand creatures dancing there 
Make beautiful the ground. 



2i6 THE WEDDING FEAST 

" The fountains leap ! The fountains spring ! 
They heal me with their cool delight ! 
I weep, and merrily I sing, 
A creature passionately bright. 

" I feed upon the loveliest fruit 
That ever shone on any tree. 
I bite its mild mysterious root, 

I dance in ecstasy. 
Gleaming softly in and out 
Calm dead people move about 
As happy as can be. 

" I cannot grieve ! I cannot weep ! 
I cannot see an unholy thing ! 
Behold — a corpse laid out to sleep. 
Death swathed it in a living wing, 
And underneath that snow-white plume 
I heard a happy creature sing. 

u For now love's breath is in my hair, 
Mine eyes have seen the greater bliss. 
My smiling lips shall always wear 
The splendor of my great Love's kiss. 

" Now must they be deep wells of truth, 
Wherefrom a fount of beauty springs. 






THE WEDDING FEAST 217 

The mouth, whereon His lips were pressed, 
Shall murmur dread ecstatic things." 

I laughed aloud — " Love, we are gods, 

Beyond all earthly bars ! 
And underneath our feet the sod 

Is suns and moons and stars. 

" We gather meteors in our hands, 

We drink the bubbling spheres. 
Our bread is seas and lands. We breathe 
The cyclones of the years. 

" Our garments bright are woven of light, 
Of golden stars and whirling air. 
And times and change and histories strange, 
And Judgment Days, are acted there. 

" Thy shape is white with murmuring moons, 
Woven of strong stars thy body is. 
Thou art those flashing orbs — my soul, 
Their ancient melodies ! 

" Now are we one before God's sight, 
Purged brightly clean with mightiest grief, 
With chastened longing and a mood 
Humble beyond belief. 



2i 8 THE WEDDING FEAST 

" Love, thou art Priest at Heaven's shrine ! 
The Truth thou knowest, cry again ! 
My breasts are beautiful with milk. 
I am mother to all living men ! " 



DOxMINUS VINEAE; 
SPIRITUS AGRICOLA 1 

Once more among our archangelic hills 
The streets of this old, grave, and gracious town 
Throb with renewing vigor as when Spring 
Rushes upon the forest and through it spills 
Her ancient rapture. Now the campus thrills 

With feet that run and voices that sing. 

It is the College in her bourgeoning ! 

Happy are we 
Returning homeward that we still can see 

In the old places 
The tenderly remembered kindly faces 
Of those who taught us wisdom in our youth ; 
In faith established, having made plain the truth 
Of beautiful friendship, honorably proved ; 
Yes, in a chastened and a lofty mood 

Of thoughtful gratitude 
Seeing once more in the accustomed ways 

1 This ode was read at the assembly of alumnae, held June 14th, 
1 910, in commemoration of the thirty-seven years of service of L. Clark 
Seelye, first president of Smith College, 18 73-1 9 10. 



220 DOMINUS VINEAE 

Him whom we come to praise, 
Presence revered and loved. 

Ever among life's solemn things 
Are such rejoicings. 
Beneath the laughter and the song there fall 

Rich silences, 

And stronger cadences, 

And deeper voices call 
"Ending is here " — and cycles new and strange 
Sweep through the air a solemn undertone. 
Deeper than depth beneath all things are blown 
The rushings of the invisible wings of change. 

Not ours to know 

His deep rejoicings 
When with strict vigilance and with secret pains 

He turned to visible gains 

Hard and invisible things. 
Not ours the solemn splendor of those wings 
That in his sombre vigils of the night 
Seized him with visions excellently bright. 

Not ours the speechless grievings, 
The glorious believings, 

When with a glad surmise 
He saw the future with prophetic eyes. 

Not ours to know, 



DOMINUS VINEAE 221 

During laborious years, 
The downcast moment or with what aching need 
He watched upon the bursting of the seed ; 
Nor the interior spiritual tears 

That are the bitter waterings 

Of all heroic things ; 
Nor amid what savor of his midnight prayer 
The Spirit came upon him with a mood 
That drove him forth into the solitude 
Of sleepless, holy watching. And he went. 
And beholding a vision wonderfully fair 
He wrestled with the Lord before the tent. 

But ours is the harvesting, 
The joyous bringing-in, 
The drinking of the wine 
That is the vintage of his thought benign. 
Ours is the glory won ! 
What ritual shall be done ? 
What shall be said ? 
Ye feasters upon bread 
Made of nutritious grain, 
The very kernel of his faith and pain ! 

Upon this day 
There is accomplished a great deed, 

A beautiful fruition 
From the small sowing of an early seed. 



222 DOMINUS VINEAE 

Behold, a work is brought into completion. 
Let us rejoice, for we have need I say, 
Of every praiseful speech and loving word, 
Knowing that when night falls upon this town 

A good man has laid down 
His fruits upon the table of the Lord. 

Behold the Pioneer ! 
Stout-hearted, with keen eyes, of vision clear, 

A natural searcher for such land as lies 
In distant seas and under alien skies. 

Would I might trace 
The courtly quaintness and the austere grace, 
The angelic shrewdness of that kindly face, 
Inscribed with characters, as if lightning-struck 
God's gracious scripture was engraved on rock. 

A son of our New England stock, 
Serene, high-souled, and exquisitely plain 
As mountain air is, after a cold rain ! 

But yet with no severity 

In his sweet austerity ! 

So charitably mild 

I think that any child 
Would run to meet him if he only smiled ! 

I like to muse 
On his first simple strenuous days 



DOMINUS VINEAE 223 

And the high-hearted girls that greatly kept 

Their great companionships 
With sages, prophets, poets. With what glad eyes 

They tripped, girl-wise, 
Through many a blossoming Paradise ! 
In flower-sweet vales where dreaming Pindar slept 
The bees left honey on their lips. 
In classic porticos of thought, 
By Grecian boys befriended, 
With lofty speech and young imaginings 

They jealously attended 
High counsels held on spiritual things, 

Angelic — human. 
Still by mankind forbidden, they eagerly sought 

What Diotima unto Plato taught 
And Socrates learned from a mystic Woman. 

Yes — it should be our glory and elation 
That among the earliest women of this nation 
They vowed themselves to that great exploration. 

How many a girl has set 
Her face against the unhuman wind that blows 

From the imperishable snows 
Of mathematical glaciers and beheld 
Such fierce auroral splendors as not yet 
Have shown in gentler climates, but flash forth 

Out of the frozen north 



224 DOMINUS VINEAE 

Of ultimate thought that has not any pole ; 
Or has explored the regions of the soul 
And from some philosophic precipice 

Has swept 
Her innocent vision over the dark abyss 
Of mortal night ; 
With spirit lowly 
And with dreaming eyes 
Has guarded well the sight 
Of visions lovely and holy, 
And half a child, in solitude, has kept 
Her solemn watch beneath the infinite skies. 

Look — we arise 

Before the elder daughters gathered here. 

Scanning young faces with gaze steady and clear, 
They search them and require 
A spiritual accounting and a just. 

" How have ye answered to the sacred trust ? 

Before the lamps we lighted have ye slept ? 

Have ye forsook the service ? or have ye kept 

Your spirits constant and your minds austere ? 

Out of our vessels have ye spilt the wine ? 

Are ye troubled with a spiritual yearning ? 
Are ye dream-enchanted ? 

What are your visions ? Are your souls star- 
haunted ? 



DOMINUS VINEAE 225 

Speak, in the fennel is the fire still burning ? 
Is the incense good ? Is the fragrance pungent and 
fine? 
What prayers do ye breathe over it ? 
Ye unknown daughters of this generation, 
In sacred places is the service fit ? 
And with the old mysterious elation, 
Ye younger vestals, have ye kept the shrine ? 
Oh, is the flame upon our altars lit ? " 

Last night among our academic trees 
Gleamed golden bubbles, globes of scarlet light, 
Blue stars, and moons diaphanously white, 
As if great comets blew through our mortal 
night 
A fiery and a planetary seed. 
Then was there laughter and such sights indeed 
As once we never dreamed. 
It seemed 
As if the altar spirit had been spent 
In delirious merriment. 
Amid the ancient falling of the dew 
Flashed spirits white, the very maddest crew 
That ever charmed the grass with dances new. 
Like morning stars singing in the deep skies ! 
With silvery halloo and gracious cries 
Of friendship ! Why, in such a magic air, 



226 DOMINUS VINEAE 

One looked no more for any mortal thing, 
But for such faery pageants as were seen 

When Vivian dressed in green 
Charmed Wisdom into strange imagining. 
Then, as of gay and friendly fauns, 
Were daintiest skippings on the lawns, 
Bright screams and singing calls 
Of innocent Bacchanals, 
While through the darkness in delicious swirls, 
Sport beguiled, 
Delicately wild, 
Swept lightly frenzied girls. 

Sedulously the elders catechize, 

But to the watchful query of their eyes 

Gaze back young eyes as clear. 
" Before the lamps ye lighted we have not slept. 
Still, still do we behold with ritual lowly 
Visions and things unutterably holy, 
And with strict pain and vigilance have kept 
Our spirits constant and our minds austere. 
Even as of old our spiritual waters 
Are troubled with the angels. Oh, believe ! 
Now, as of old, communing with His daughters 
God walks among these gardens in the eve." 

Now, as of old ! Still do the orchard trees 



DOMINUS VINEAE 227 

Bear fruits for ardent girls. In Paradise 
Forget-me-nots still look with childlike eyes. 
To the intimate skies 
Point familiar towers. 
It is no alien grace 
That mocks from a strange face. 
Unspeakably ours ! 
But the old Spirit, with influence divine, 
Is worshiped still upon this mystic shrine. 
Happy are they who in their youth inherit 
That vast and lovely Spirit 
To whom our steps are led — 
The invisible, scarce dreamed of, superhuman, 

The Ultimate Woman — 
The moon of Heaven is underneath Her feet 
And twelve bright stars are orbed about Her 
head. 

Oh, let it on this day of him be said, 

He had the sight, 
The interior vision, and he saw such things, 
As John the Beloved dreamed on. And he came, 
And raised a holy altar in the night, 
And that Her presence should be known by flame 
He set upon Her shrine an eternal light. 
So did the Seer remind us, 
Lest the new morning blind us, 



228 DOMINUS VINEAE 

That beauty and youth and youths own spiritual 
yearning, 
All loves and aspirations, 
Hard labors and elations, 
All passionate learning, 
Should be the oil to that holy burning. 

Wherefore let us wisdom take 

And of it make 
A garment innocent and fair 
Radiant as the early air. 
Let us turn it into Spring : 
Out of ancient, alien dust 
Wake a joyous blossoming ; 
With a heart of ardent trust 
Refreshing earth with untouched dew, 
Cultures exquisite and new, 
Praising him, if praise we can, 
That in a time when men on Customs lean, 

By a great man, 
Womanhood has been beautifully seen. 

Oh man of battles ! Hero in God's sight ! 

Zealous fighter for the right, 

Stout wielder of the sword, 
Lover of things desirable and hard ! 



DOMINUS VINEAE 229 

How beautiful he goes ! 

As graciously as a rose 
Unfolds its sweetness to a larger light ! 
The work achieved and with the Lord put by, 

He goes to other deeds, 

Fulfilling unseen needs, 
To greatnesses hard and high. 

By his influence benign, 
And by his battles at the great redoubt, 
By his purged and chastened sight, 
That saw a Woman raised upon the night — 

Oh by his faith divine, 
And the pure flame he set upon Her shrine, 

Let not that light go out. 



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